UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore, capping off a week–long trip to Iraq, has warned that foreign powers are increasingly complicit in the neglect of civilians in the country, saying everyone is too focused on defeating ISIS at all cost and has no strategy for repairing the country.
Gilmore said it was reasonable to focus on the military action, but that this must necessarily include comparable investment in non-military relief, something which largely isn’t happening, adding that Iraq desperately needs reform and reconciliation.
Discussing the efforts to get a new cabinet in Iraq, Gilmore insisted that the political paralysis meant that “there is no government in Iraq,” and that Iraq has vastly underfunded the camps for internally displaced persons, with what little foreign money was supposed to pay for those camps “disappearing into the pockets of local officials.”
Concerns about mounting corruption drove the pressure for Prime Minister Abadi to name a cabinet of technocrats, to replace the politically connected leadership, though parliament has been suspended now for nearly a week, and it seems unlikely a vote on the cabinet will ever happen.