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300,000 Syrian Kurds 'Buried Alive'
15.2.2006
By Abid Aslam
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WASHINGTON, D.C.,
Feb 14 (OneWorld) - They went to sleep as Syrians
and woke up stripped of their citizenship and their
rights to study, work, or marry as they wish.
Such was the fate of 120,000 Syrian Kurds who became
people with no country in 1962, when they were
purged from the Syrian population in a politically
motivated one-day census, the Washington, D.C.-based
humanitarian group Refugees International said in a
new report Tuesday.
Today, their ranks have swollen to 300,000 and their
plight is such that one Syrian Kurdish man
interviewed by the group described it as ''like
being buried alive.''
The report, ''Buried Alive: Stateless Kurds in
Syria,'' urged the government in Damascus to make
good on promises to resolve the problem and called
on UN, U.S., and European Union officials to keep up
pressure on the issue, which it said posed a threat
to stability in Syria and the Middle East.
''Syria is denying its Kurdish population numerous
fundamental human rights by refusing to address
these issues of nationality,'' said Maureen Lynch,
research director at Refugees International and the
report's author.
''Although President Bashar Al-Assad has said that
he wants to resolve this problem, few actions have
been taken to reinstate nationality for the Kurdish
people in Syria. As a result, stateless Kurds in
Syria feel like they have been buried alive,'' she
added.
The Kurds disowned in 1962 officially were branded
''foreigners'' but since they enjoyed citizenship
nowhere else, they were condemned to statelessness.
They have only spotty access to education, health
care, and employment--rights enjoyed by other
Syrians, the report said. They face difficulty in
owning businesses and property.
''Even registering a marriage, traveling outside of
the country or changing one's residence is a
particular challenge for Syrian Kurds,'' Refugees
International said. ''With few options left at their
disposal, some stateless Kurds risk death,
deportation and imprisonment by attempting to leave
the country with false passports, or by paying human
smugglers hefty fees.''
Those hardships are faced not only by the generation
written off in 1962 but also by their heirs, the
group's investigators found on a visit to Syria last
October.
''After finishing university, the painful life
began,'' said one man described as looking older
than his stated age of 43 years.
''We saw our classmates and friends get jobs and buy
houses,'' he said. Trained as a lawyer, he was
forced to look for other work.
''As a result of our suffering, we wanted to ask for
our rights. In many countries, even the animals have
identification or a family card, at least a family
tree. But people here do not treat stateless persons
even as well as Europeans treat their animals,'' he
said.
''Now I am 43 years old. I see all my friends who
studied with me--doctors, lawyers, engineers,
officers, or others who have identity or nationality
go outside of the country and bring money back. I,
my wife, and children work in a shop moving heavy
appliances,'' he added. ''We arrange our life as we
have money--maybe twice a month we buy meat.''
Yet, the man was among few stateless Syrian Kurds to
attend university. The government recognizes Kurdish
children's right to primary education but stateless
Kurds face trouble getting into secondary school and
college, according to Refugees International.
Stateless Kurds also are barred from government jobs
and from practicing law or medicine. They are
allowed to work in some, but not all, teaching and
engineering jobs. Stateless Kurdish men cannot
legally marry Syrian women, according to the report.
Kurds are barred from using their language in
conversation, publications, and in the naming of
their children. They face interrogation, detention,
and torture, according to the report.
All this is the result of a 1962 census officially
conducted to identify foreigners said to have
crossed the border from Turkey illegally, Refugees
International said. In fact, it added, the
head-count formed part of a drive to 'Arabize'
Syria's resource-rich northeast.
''To retain their citizenship, Kurds had to prove
residence in Syria prior to 1945, but many Kurds
with proof of residence lost their nationality
anyway,'' the organization said.
The issue has haunted Syria and periodically has
spilled over into public protest, regional uprisings
and, in 2004, major race rioting sparked by a soccer
match, according to rights watchdog Amnesty
International.
Stateless Kurds have been further emboldened to push
for citizenship and recognition as a major group
within the country following the creation of a
Kurdish autonomous zone in Iraq, Refugees
International said.
Last November, Al-Assad publicly reiterated his
intention to resolve the issue. A number of Syrian
officials have said there is no crisis and that only
a handful of Kurdish families live without official
citizenship.
The estimated 300,000 stateless Kurds represent a
portion of Syria's total Kurdish population. The
size of that population--a politically prickly
measurement--remains officially undetermined but
estimates cited in the report put Kurds at 8-15
percent of Syria's national population of around 18
million people.
Restoring stateless Kurds' citizenship and rights
should be a top priority, the document said.
''Only when the stateless Kurds in Syria have been
fully nationalized and the broader issue of the
Kurdish place in Syrian political, social, and
economic life has been addressed can peace and
security within Syria be realized,'' it concluded.
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