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Syria: Remembering the massacre in Hassake
28.3.2006
Vladimir van Wilgenburg, Journalist - Netherlands
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Thirteen years ago, on
24.3.1993 the Syrian regime put the central prison
in Hassake in Al-Jazira on fire, say Kurdish
political parties. This prison was inhabited by
mainly political Kurdish prisoners.
According to the Kurdish Yekiti party, the Syrian
regime organised this incident to kill Kurdish
political prisoners. The Syrian Baath regime put all
Kurds of this prison in one chamber on 23 March. On
24 March 1993 the chamber was put on fire by unknown
perpetrators. As a result 61 Kurds were killed and
14 prisoners were wounded seriously.
The authorities said it was an accident and that
they didn’t know what happened nor who put the
chamber on fire. The Yekiti party declared that this
version of the story cannot be trusted.
According to their research, the fire had a
political racist background, because no one helped
the dying and wounded prisoners afterwards. There
were no efforts made to extinguish the fire. The
Yekiti party demands, that the background of this
incident is investigated by an independent
commission, which can decide what really happened. |
Vladimir van Wilgenburg
Journalist - Netherlands |
The Syrian Minister of Domestic Affairs Muhammed
Harba portrayed people, who brought this incident
into the spotlight as “traitors“. “Among the
casualties are only 34 Syrian civilians. The rest
are foreigners,” said the minister in 1993.
According to him those foreigners are Kurds. The
five remaining Kurdish survivors were put back in
prison.
The Yekiti party asked the German government, human
rights organisations and democratic parties to
demand the truth from the Syrian government and to
put the responsible offenders and culprits in
prison.
The Syrian regime committed massacres against the
Kurdish people before. According to the Kurdish
activist Marwan Othman thousands of people were
killed in the Hamma in 1982. In March 2004, 44 Kurds
were killed by Syrian security forces and Arab
supporters of the Syrian state, after riots broke
out. The riots were caused by Arabic football
supporters, which insulted the Kurdish people and
leaders of Kurdish political parties in a football
match between a Kurdish and a Syrian Arab team.
According to Mariwan, the Kurds were sick of the
Syrian oppression and rose up against the Syrian
regime. Afterwards thousands of Kurds were arrested.
In June 2005 the Kurdish religious leader Sheikh
Muhammed Ma’shooq Khaznawi was abducted by state
officials reported the Syrian Human Rights
Committee. He died due to extreme torture. He first
was transported to a military hospital on 31st of
May and then was brought to an unknown location.
Until today still hundreds of Kurds are tortured and
imprisoned. According to Amnesty International there
are still 150.000 stateless Kurds in Syria and Kurds
are discriminated.
http://vladimirkurdistan.blogspot.com/
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