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QAMISHLI, Syria, June 2 (AFP) - 16h46 - Syria's
official press Thursday named five men whom the
authorities have blamed for the murder of a Kurdish
Muslim religious leader, but Kurdish groups and the
victim's family were sceptical.
Sheikh Mohammed Maashuk Khaznawi, who went missing
last month, was buried Wednesday in his native
Qamishli, northeast Syria, where he used to lead
prayers, drawing tens of thousands of mourners,
according to Kurdish officials.
"Security forces arrested two members of the gang
which carried out the crime of kidnapping and
assassinating Sheikh Khaznawi," said the Tishrin
government daily.
It named them as Yassin Matar Hindi, 43, a Damascus
employee of the state electricity authority, and
Mohammed Matar Abdullah, 36, prayer leader of a
mosque in Hassakeh, northeast Syria.
The two are both natives of Deir Ezzor in the same
region, it said.
Three other members of the gang are on the run,
Tishrin said, giving their names as Ismail Kadri
Malla, also from Hassakeh; Samir Tlaigeh from
Aleppo, north of Damascus, and Said Haidaleh from
Deir Ezzor.
On Wednesday, the interior ministry had said all
five were arrested.
But Kurdish parties were unconvinced.
"The reports by the Syrian media are dubious; they
conceal political motives," Hassan Saleh, secretary
general of the banned Kurdish party Yakiti, told
reporters in Qamichli.
He called for a commission of inquiry, including
Kurdish lawyers, "to uncover the truth", and
declared that sit-in protests would be held in
Kurdish areas of northeast Syria as well as in
Damascus and Aleppo.
"We know the criminals who killed our father. We are
going to publish a communique about this," said
Mohammed Murad Khaznawi, 30, one of the murdered
sheikh's 16 sons.
"If we had been in Switzerland, I would have told
you the truth but we are in Syria," he said.
In the town of Qamishli, shops kept their shutters
down Thursday in a sign of mourning. Inside a huge
tent erected for the family to receive condolences,
several mourners also insisted on finding out the
truth of the murder.
Despite the official version, Amnesty International
said Khaznawi was "at least the sixth Syrian Kurd to
have died as a result of torture and ill-treatment
since March 2004".
The 46-year-old religious leader "died on 30 May, 20
days after he 'disappeared', apparently detained by
Syrian military intelligence at an unknown
location", the rights group said.
It called for Syrian authorities to launch "an
immediate, independent investigation" into the
sheikh's death "in custody".
Just days before his disappearance, Khaznawi is
reported to have called in an interview with the
Canadian newspaper, the Globe and Mail, for regime
change in Damascus.
"Either the regime will change or the regime must go
... I could not have said this five years ago
because the Americans weren't in (neighbouring) Iraq
five years ago," he said.
His disappearance led some 10,000 Kurds to
demonstrate in Qamishli on May 21, demanding that
the Syrian authorities release news of the cleric's
whereabouts.
Qamishli was the site of riots in March 2004 that
began with stadium fighting between Arab and Kurdish
football fans and grew into bloody clashes between
Kurdish protestors, Syrian security forces and Arab
tribesmen.
Kurdish sources reported that 40 people died in the
fighting. Syrian authorities said 25 were killed.
Syria is home to some 1.5 million Kurds, around nine
percent of the population. They are demanding to
have their language, culture and political rights
recognised.
AFP
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