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Syria frees 75 Syrian Kurds: human rights
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5.9.2006
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DAMASCUS, Sept 4,
2006 ,-- Seventy-five Syrian Kurds arrested by
security forces in the northern city of Aleppo on
March 20 have been freed, the National Organization
for Human Rights in Syria said Monday.
"The Syrian authorities yesterday (Sunday) freed 75
Kurds detained on March 20 in Aleppo during
celebrations to mark the Kurdish New Year," the
group's president Ammar al-Qorabi told AFP.
He said the releases meant that all those arrested
during the celebrations had now been freed, while
calling on Syrian authorities to "free all political
prisoners and prisoners of conscience".
Some 3,000 Kurds bearing Kurdish flags gathered on
March 20 in an Aleppo neighbourhood to celebrate
Noruz, the Kurdish New Year.
The security forces used tear-gas to break up the
demonstration, during which stones were thrown at
police. More than 100 people were arrested, although
some were held only briefly.
The secretary general of the Kurdish Democratic
Progressive party, Aziz Daoud, called the latest
releases "positive", and said they were "in response
to an open letter sent by Kurdish lawyers to Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad."
Daoud told AFP he hoped the releases "will be
followed by the release of other Kurds being held,
in particular the 45 arrested during a Kurdish
demonstration at Qameshli (Kurdistan-Syria)
"northeast of Damascus" on June 5, 2005".
The protestors had been calling for an investigation
into the murder of popular Kurdish cleric Maashuq
Khaznawi, an outspoken advocate of Kurdish rights.
In March 2004, five days of deadly clashes pitted
Kurds against the security forces and Arab tribesmen
in Aleppo and Qameshli. The authorities said 25
people were killed, but Kurdish sources put the
death toll as high as 40.
AFP
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