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Syria arrests dissidents on anniversary of
Kurdish-Arab clashes
13.3.2006
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DAMASCUS, March
12, 2006 - Security forces arrested a former
opposition MP and several Kurdish demonstrators who
were marking the second anniversary of deadly
clashes in northern Syria, human rights advocates
said.
Riad Seif was detained along with at least five
members of the Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party
during a sit-in near a Damascus government building,
said a statement by the Syrian Organization for
Human Rights.
Security forces beat and then detained some of the
demonstrators, after three of those taking part in
the sit-in attempted to deliver a message to Prime
Minister Naji Otri, said human rights lawyer Anwar
Bunni Sunday, adding that several demonstrators had
been wounded.
The rights group also said some demonstrators had
been wounded, and expressed its "concern over the
violent behavior of security services toward
peaceful protestors who are asking for the release
of political detainees."
Bloody clashes, initially sparked by a riot between
rival fans at a football match, pitted mainly
Kurdish protestors against security forces and Arab
tribesmen in the (Kurdistan-Syria) northern Syrian
towns of Qameshli and Aleppo in March 2004.
Forty people were killed during several days of
violence according to Kurdish sources, though Syrian
authorities said 25 people had died.
Seif, 54, had been released in January after nearly
five years in prison for participating in a
short-lived "Damascus spring" of liberalization in
2001 by President Bashar al-Assad.
He was briefly rearrested last month after serving
time on charges of working "to change the
constitution through illegal means."
AFP
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