Iraq on item IV Thank you Sir. Terrorist groups in Iraq have resorted to all forms of violence against civilians. Displacing them, bombing them, killing them, targeting religious sites, especially religious minorities in Nineveh. They are subjected to sexual enslavement, displacement, and killing, including Christian, Shabak, Shiites and the Turkmen and the Yezidis. They were subjected to forceful conversion. The government responded immediately, in order to rescue the civilians without discrimination and to host them in other towns and offer them necessary humanitarian assistance with the aid of international organisations. We also made very effort to secure their return and the reconstruction of the regional areas. We also offered social protection rehabilitation for victims including women and children in order to reintegrate them in the society. I would like to react to what was said by Mr [Kamil Zuzu]. The Assyrian […] of Iraq, I did not want to interrupt him when he made his statement because we believe in the rights of CSOs to speak. We also support their participation and their work. We in Iraq have thousands of NGOs that perform their activities in full freedom. That right is guaranteed by the Iraqi Constitution. However, I would have hoped that the representative of that organisation would have made use of the minutes that were given in this forum to speak about the crimes and violations committed by Daesh and all the crimes committed to Christians and Yezidis as well as other minorities by this terrorist group in terms of killing and displacement, instead of attacking the Iraqi government based on false and inaccurate information. Mr Chair, the terrorists Daesh group is the one that looted the Christians and forced conversion on them to Islam. In Iraq, the constitution guarantees freedom of worship and belief as well as equality before the law. Every day people are being killed, especially from our armed forces of all confessions and from popular mobilisation units, they are making efforts to recover the lands and homes of these people and to secure their return. And that happened most recently in Bashiqa and certain parts of Mosul. This is our belief that it is the duty of the government to defend all citizens of Iraq. Thank you.

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