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Kurdish politician tortured to death in
Syria
22.2.2008 |
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February 22, 2008
Kurdish Human Rights Project has just received
information that former Kurdish politician Osman
Mihemed Sileman Hecî, who had served as a Syrian MP
between 1991 and 2007 died in hospital Tuesday
following several months of torture and ill
treatment in prison.
Mr Hecî was arrested on 27 November 2007 and had
been in prison ever since, suffering torture and ill
treatment at the hands of Syrian police. On 22
January 2008 he was taken to El Kindi Hospital by
Syrian officials and registered with the name of Eli
Ehmed to hide his real identity. He died of his
injuries there Tuesday.
Mr Hecî is one of countless Syrian Kurds who suffer
arbitrary detention and torture at the hands of
Syrian officials. Syria’s Kurdish region is kept
deliberately economically isolated both from the
rest of Syria,www.ekurd.net
and other
Kurdish-inhabited regions.
Around a million Kurds have been stripped of
citizenship and therefore unable to travel or access
basic services. Arrests and violence in Syria’s
Kurdish regions have been particularly common in
recent months due to Syrian Kurdish opposition to
Turkey’s military operations in Kurdistan Iraq,
operations which Syria vocally supported.
In response to the news KHRP Executive Director
Kerim Yildiz stated: “Kurds are disenfranchised,www.ekurd.net
arbitrarily arrested,
tortured and killed with a shocking degree of
impunity in Syria. That even a long-serving and
respected member of parliament such as Mr Hecî can
suffer such a fate demonstrates that Syria cares
little even to hide such outrageous conduct.
KHRP calls on the international community to
unreservedly condemn this killing and to put the
necessary pressure on Syria to enfranchise its
Kurdish population and to respect the human rights
of all its citizens”.
Kurdish Human Rights Project
** Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria
making up 10% of the country's population i.e. about
two million.
Kurds in Syria often speak Kurdish in public,
unless all those present do not. Kurdish human
rights activists are mistreated and persecuted. No
political parties are allowed for any group, Kurdish
or otherwise.
Suppression of ethnic identity of
Kurds in Syria include: various bans on the use of
the Kurdish language; refusal to register children
with Kurdish names; replacement of Kurdish place
names with new names in Arabic; prohibition of
businesses that do not have Arabic names; not
permitting Kurdish private schools; and the
prohibition of books and other materials written in
Kurdish.
More about Kurds in Syria - (Kurdistan-Syria)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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