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Iran: Rights group urges investigation into Kurdish
killing
11.8.2005
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New York, 11
August (AKI) - An international human rights
organisation on Thursday called on the Iranian
government to investigate the death of at least 17
people who are believed to have been killed by
security forces in the western Iranian province of
Kurdistan over the past two weeks. The New
York-based Human Rights Watch says that it has
obtained a list of 17 people killed by security
forces in various cities as they were protesting the
murder of a young Kurdish man, Shivan Qaderi by
security forces in the city of Mahabad.
"The Iranian government needs to conduct a full and
impartial investigation into the violent response to
the recent protests in Kurdistan," said Hadi Ghaemi,
Iran researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW).
"Officials who are responsible for any excessive use
of lethal force must be prosecuted."
Shivan Kaderi was reported to have been shot and
killed by security forces on 9 July. Kurdish groups,
quoting Qaderi's brother said that he was approached
by security forces and public, shot three times and
tied to a military vehicle and dragged around the
city. The reports say that Qaderi was a social and
political activist, but the government accused him
of "moral and financial violations."
After Qaderi's killing, protests erupted in many
cities and towns in Kurdistan with protestors asking
for the government to arrest and try Qaderi's
killers. In the protests, which involved attacks on
government offices and buildings, at least 17 people
were killed according to HRW, of which at least 11
were shot dead in Saqqez on August 3.
Iranian interior ministry officials confirm that at
least two men died in the Saqqez killings but deny
that government forces shot at the protestors.
However two residents of Saqqez told HRW that the
special unit of the Iranian revolutionary guards
fired indiscriminately at the crowds.
"The security forces moved towards the protestors
while shooting directly at them,” one eyewitness
told the rights group. Eyewitnesses also told HRW
that one of the dead in Saqqez, Mohammad Shariati,
was shot in the head.
“As his family tried to retrieve his body, the
security forces pointed their guns at them and
threatened to shoot them. Then they started beating
his family with batons,” said an eyewitness who also
saw Shariati fall to the ground.
In addition, eyewitnesses said that the security
forces in Saqqez flew helicopters quite low in an
effort to disperse the demonstrators, who numbered
in the hundreds.
Local residents in Kurdistan say that major cities
in the province remain surrounded by units of the
Revolutionary Guards. The Iranian authorities say
that the unrest was cause by "hooligans and criminal
elements" and say that public and state-owned
buildings had been damaged.
The government has also shut down newspaper officers
and have arrested prominent journalists and human
rights defenders in the province. HRW called for the
immediate release of those detained.
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