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Syria: Kurdish politician Mustafa Juma
arrested
15.1.2009 |
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January 15, 2009
The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) learnt
Tuesday that the deputy chairperson of the Syrian
Kurdish Azadi Party, Mustafa Juma, was arrested last
Tuesday,www.ekurd.net
(January 6, 2009) by
Syrian security forces after a trial in Aleppo.
The Kurdish politician had been summoned to appear
before the military secret service. According to
reports from his party the 62-year old father was
transferred to Damascus last Saturday. He is being
held at present by the military secret service in
the so-called Fir´a Vilistin near the Syrian
capital.
Mustafa Juma was born in the north-Syrian department
of Aleppo in the district of Kobane (Ain-al-Arab)
and is the father of twelve children. The Azadi
Party is one of the four organisations in the
so-called Kurdish Democratic Alliance (KDA). The KDA
works with peaceful means for the human rights of
Kurds in cooperation with the Arab Syrian opposition
parties for a democratisation of the country.
The GfbV is writing today to all EU embassies in the
Syrian capital with the request that they speak up
for the immediate release of Mustafa Juma.
In Syria about 150 Kurds are being held in prison as
political prisoners. The GfbV has the names of 98 of
them. The approximately two million Syrian Kurds,www.ekurd.net
who make up the majority
of the population in the three regions on the border
between Syria and Turkey, are being discriminated or
suppressed. Their rights to their language and
culture are being denied. In 1962 in the general
process of Arabicisation the Syrian citizenship of
300,000 Kurds was withdrawn. The GfbV has always
called for the restoration of their rights as Syrian
citizens.
If you have questions, please approach the GfbV
Near-east consultant, Dr. Kamal Sido, at tel. ++49
(0)173 67 33 980.
Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker / Society for
Threatened Peoples
P.O. Box 20 24 - D-37010 Göttingen/Germany
Nahostreferat/ Middle East Desk
Dr. Kamal Sido - Tel: +49 (0) 551 49906-18 - Fax:
+49 (0) 551 58028
E-Mail: nahost@gfbv.deThis e-mail address is being
protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript
enabled to view it - www.gfbv.de
Copyright, respective author or news
agency, gfbv de
* Syria:
More than 1.5 million Kurds live in Syria, mainly in
the north bordering Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan
region. They comprise
nine percent of the population and have long sought
official recognition of the Kurdish language and
their culture.
Future Movement advocates democracy and equal rights
for Syria's one million Kurdish minority. The
Kurdish language is not allowed to be taught in
schools and tens of thousands of Kurds were denied
citizenship after a 1960s census.
Freedom of expression remains tightly controlled in
Syria, and security forces have sweeping powers of
arrest and detention.
A total 1,500 people were arrested for political
reasons in 2007 and hundreds more who were arrested
in previous years remained in detention, according
to rights group Amnesty International's 2008 report.
** 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
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