WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Islamic State is using several forms of
contraception to maintain its supply of sex slaves, the New York Times
reported on Saturday, citing interviews with more than three dozen
Yazidi women who escaped from the militant group.
The
New York Times reported that Islamic State used "oral and injectable
contraception, and sometimes both" to ensure that the women did not
become pregnant and could be passed among the fighters.
"In at
least one case, a woman was forced to have an abortion in order to make
her available for sex, and others were pressured to do so," the paper
said.
Islamic State militants consider the Yazidis to be
devil-worshippers. The Yazidi faith has elements of Christianity,
Zoroastrianism and Islam. Most of the Yazidi population, numbering
around half a million, remains displaced in camps inside the autonomous
entity in Iraq's north known as Kurdistan.
Until late last year,
some 5,000 Yazidi men and women were captured by the militants in the
summer of 2014. Of those, around 2,000 had managed to escape or been
smuggled out of Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate, activists
said.
The New York Times, citing a gynecologist who carried out
the examinations, said that out of the more than 700 Yazidi rape victims
who had gone to a United Nations-backed clinic in Iraq, only 5 percent
had become pregnant during their enslavement.
Dr. Nezar Ismet
Taib, head of the Ministry of Health Directorate in Dohuk which oversees
the clinic, said that number was much lower than expected, according to
the newspaper.
The United Nations and human rights groups have
accused the Islamic State of the systematic abduction and rape of
thousands of women and girls as young as 12. Many have been given to
fighters as a reward or sold as sex slaves.
Far from trying to
conceal the practice, Islamic State has boasted about it and established
a department of "war spoils" to manage slavery. Reuters reported on the
existence of the department in December.
(This version of the story corrects in last line to "December" from "Monday")
(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Diane Craft)
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