United Nations investigates claim of
ISIS organ theft New York (CNN)— The United Nations
is looking into claims that ISIS -- already
considered the wealthiest terrorist
group on record -- may be harvesting
organs from slain civilians and gaining
financi
al benefits by trafficking the body
parts, officials said Wednesday.
But Britain's ambassador to the U.N.,
Mark Lyall Grant, said the issue has not
been officially discussed. Grant said
there was no proof or evidence of the
claim made by Iraq's ambassador to the
United Nations.
The Iraqi ambassador, Mohamed
Alhakim, on Tuesday urged the Security
Council to investigate the deaths of 12
doctors in Mosul, Iraq. He said they
were killed after refusing to remove
organs from bodies.
"Some of the bodies we found are
mutilated ... that means some parts are
missing," he told reporters, adding that
there were openings in the back of the
bodies where the kidneys would be
located.
"This is clearly something bigger than we
think," Alhakim said.
The plunder of bodies for usable organs
and tissues is widespread, according to
Nancy Scheper-Hughes, director of
Organs Watch, a University of California,
Berkeley-based documentation and
research project.
"Organ theft during wars, civil wars,
dirty wars, wars involving undisciplined
armies is not uncommon," Scheper-
Hughes, chair of Berkeley's doctoral
program in medical anthropology, said in
an email.
The U.N.'s Iraqi mission on Wednesday
said Alhakim was not granting
interviews.
"At this point we're not in a position to
corroborate what he says, but obviously
any source of illegal financing of groups
such as ISIS or other extremist groups is
extremely worrisome," U.N. spokesman
Stephane Dujarric told CNN.
Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. special
envoy handling Iraq, said the organ theft
claim would be investigated.
"We have seen these reports as well,"
he said. "However, I do not want to
hasten to confirm anything before we
study them in greater detail."
Mladenov said reports that the group "is
using a human trafficking as part of its
sources of income" have circulated for
months.
"I cannot speak to the extent of that
issue until we finalize our analysis of the
problem but if one looks at the broader
picture, it is very clear that the brutality
and the tactics that (ISIS) is using
expand by the day."
The U.S. State Department said it was
aware of the "deeply disturbing
comments" about the alleged organ
trafficking but wasn't able to confirm
them.
"We also have no reason to doubt them
given other similar atrocities that have
been documented and other heinous
crimes for which ISIL has proudly taken
credit," the State Department said,
using another acronym for the militant
group.
Alhakim said there is a market in Europe
for the stolen organs. The terror group
has taken over airports where the body
parts could be flown out in deals
arranged between middlemen and
buyers, he said.
The mutilated bodies have been found
in shallow graves over the last several
weeks, he said.
Speaking to the Security Council at a
regular meeting on Iraq on Tuesday,
Alhakim cited what he said were crimes
of genocide by ISIS -- "without even
mentioning the traffic of human organs
and the theft and trafficking of
archaeological items and oil."
"These terrorist groups have desecrated
all human values," he said. "They have
committed the most heinous criminal
terrorist acts against the Iraqi people --
whether Shia, Sunni, Christian,
Turkmen."
Last month, Turkey's semiofficial
Anadolu news agency and other outlets
reported that ISIS had announced the
opening of a medical school in its main
stronghold in northern Syria.
"Dead bodies, once they are
disarticulated, pulverized, processed,
freeze-dried, etc., are so far removed
from the 'human' person that they are
simply commodities," Scheper-Hughes
said. "The demand for fresh organs and
tissues ... is insatiable."
Scheper-Hughes said fresh kidneys from
"the brain dead or from those executed
with the assistance of trained organ
harvesters are the blood diamonds of
illicit and criminal trafficking."
ISIS organ theft New York (CNN)— The United Nations
is looking into claims that ISIS -- already
considered the wealthiest terrorist
group on record -- may be harvesting
organs from slain civilians and gaining
financi
al benefits by trafficking the body
parts, officials said Wednesday.
But Britain's ambassador to the U.N.,
Mark Lyall Grant, said the issue has not
been officially discussed. Grant said
there was no proof or evidence of the
claim made by Iraq's ambassador to the
United Nations.
The Iraqi ambassador, Mohamed
Alhakim, on Tuesday urged the Security
Council to investigate the deaths of 12
doctors in Mosul, Iraq. He said they
were killed after refusing to remove
organs from bodies.
"Some of the bodies we found are
mutilated ... that means some parts are
missing," he told reporters, adding that
there were openings in the back of the
bodies where the kidneys would be
located.
"This is clearly something bigger than we
think," Alhakim said.
The plunder of bodies for usable organs
and tissues is widespread, according to
Nancy Scheper-Hughes, director of
Organs Watch, a University of California,
Berkeley-based documentation and
research project.
"Organ theft during wars, civil wars,
dirty wars, wars involving undisciplined
armies is not uncommon," Scheper-
Hughes, chair of Berkeley's doctoral
program in medical anthropology, said in
an email.
The U.N.'s Iraqi mission on Wednesday
said Alhakim was not granting
interviews.
"At this point we're not in a position to
corroborate what he says, but obviously
any source of illegal financing of groups
such as ISIS or other extremist groups is
extremely worrisome," U.N. spokesman
Stephane Dujarric told CNN.
Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. special
envoy handling Iraq, said the organ theft
claim would be investigated.
"We have seen these reports as well,"
he said. "However, I do not want to
hasten to confirm anything before we
study them in greater detail."
Mladenov said reports that the group "is
using a human trafficking as part of its
sources of income" have circulated for
months.
"I cannot speak to the extent of that
issue until we finalize our analysis of the
problem but if one looks at the broader
picture, it is very clear that the brutality
and the tactics that (ISIS) is using
expand by the day."
The U.S. State Department said it was
aware of the "deeply disturbing
comments" about the alleged organ
trafficking but wasn't able to confirm
them.
"We also have no reason to doubt them
given other similar atrocities that have
been documented and other heinous
crimes for which ISIL has proudly taken
credit," the State Department said,
using another acronym for the militant
group.
Alhakim said there is a market in Europe
for the stolen organs. The terror group
has taken over airports where the body
parts could be flown out in deals
arranged between middlemen and
buyers, he said.
The mutilated bodies have been found
in shallow graves over the last several
weeks, he said.
Speaking to the Security Council at a
regular meeting on Iraq on Tuesday,
Alhakim cited what he said were crimes
of genocide by ISIS -- "without even
mentioning the traffic of human organs
and the theft and trafficking of
archaeological items and oil."
"These terrorist groups have desecrated
all human values," he said. "They have
committed the most heinous criminal
terrorist acts against the Iraqi people --
whether Shia, Sunni, Christian,
Turkmen."
Last month, Turkey's semiofficial
Anadolu news agency and other outlets
reported that ISIS had announced the
opening of a medical school in its main
stronghold in northern Syria.
"Dead bodies, once they are
disarticulated, pulverized, processed,
freeze-dried, etc., are so far removed
from the 'human' person that they are
simply commodities," Scheper-Hughes
said. "The demand for fresh organs and
tissues ... is insatiable."
Scheper-Hughes said fresh kidneys from
"the brain dead or from those executed
with the assistance of trained organ
harvesters are the blood diamonds of
illicit and criminal trafficking."
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