Mese: Ottobre 2015

When I was in Erbil, less than a month ago, I sat down in a cafe and started chatting with an old friend. She has been an aid worker for years — for obvious security reasons I will not use her name, so let’s call her Alex — and she recently moved to Iraqi Kurdistan. Alex filled me in with details about her life and work.

Then she started telling me a story and at first I thought she must have been mistaken.

“The other day I was in a meeting with other NGOs and they started talking about a refugee camp in Anbar which is still running under ISIS,” she said realizing she triggered my reporter interest.

“What do you mean?” I asked her innocently since I was convinced refugees and IDPs — internally displaced people — were able to flee the area before ISIS seized it.

“I would say everybody who operates in the area knows about Al Qaim, but they try not to publicize it too much. There are many risks involved, especially for the people who work on the ground.”

But the reality, I discovered while reporting for Reuters Foundation on this topic, is that International organizations also do not want to be liable under counter-terrorism laws. As experts explained to me the lines are blurry and there is a great tension with international humanitarian laws. So they rather not speak about what they do and especially how in certain areas. It is true for Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and all the places where there is a non-state actor on the scene.

There is a new turning point in Jacky Sutton’s  death. According to a press release the woman acted alone, there was no sign of struggle and she had both cash and credit cards in her wallet.

“Based on an extensive review of the information provided by Turkish authorities, the family of Jacky Sutton and IWPR have reached the preliminary conclusion that no other parties were involved in her death.”

Though Sutton’s family and IWPR hired a private investigator.

“IWPR and the family will be seeking a further assessment from an independent investigative expert in order to confirm the findings once the Turkish investigation is complete.”

This is the statement.