Pakistan Press International (30 April 2007)

ISLAMABAD, April 30 (PPI) The human rights group Ansar Burney Trust International has strongly condemned the sentence of stoning to death in Iraq. The renowned human rights activist and Chairman Ansar Burney Trust International, Ansar Burney said in a press statement here Monday that on April 7 an innocent Dua Khalil Aswad, a 17 year old Kurdish girl was murdered by public stoning in Iraq after she allegedly eloped with a Muslim boy. Dua was belonging to Iraqs Yezidi religious group from the village of Bahzan in northern Iraq. She was killed by some of her relatives and a group of men and in the presence of a large noisy crowd in the town of Bashika, near the city of Mosul. Ansar Burney said that innocent Dua Khalil Aswads murder is said to have been committed by relatives and other Yezidi men because she had engaged in a friendship with a Sunni Muslim boy. Some reports suggested that she had converted from Shiat to Sunni sect. Ansar Burney said that after life threats she was given shelter in the house of a Yezidi tribal leader in Bashika, but her killers stormed the house, took her outside and stoned her to merciless death. Her death by stoning lasted for some 30 minutes. The Security forces were present at the scene of killing of humanity but failed to intervene to prevent the stoning or arrest those responsible, Burney added. Burney condemned in the strongest terms the murder of innocent Dua Khalil Aswad, and called on the Iraqi authorities to take immediate steps to identify and bring to justice, the perpetrators of this killing. He also called on the Iraqi authorities to investigate whether law enforcement officials were present but failed to intervene to prevent Dua Khalil Aswads death by stoning, and to take urgent, concrete measures, including through legislative reforms, to protect those at risk of becoming victims of so-called honour crimes.

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