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Syria: End Persecution of Kurds
29.11.2009
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November
29, 2009
Arrests of Activists, Suppression of Political and
Cultural Expression Intensify
New York, — Syrian authorities should end
their unlawful and unjustified practices of
attacking peaceful Kurdish gatherings and detaining
Kurdish political and cultural activists, Human
Rights Watch said in a report released on November
26, 2009.
The 63-page report, "Group Denial: Repression of
Kurdish Political and Cultural Rights in Syria,"
documents the Syrian authorities' efforts to ban and
disperse gatherings calling for Kurdish minority
rights or celebrating Kurdish culture, as well as
the detention of leading Kurdish political activists
and their ill-treatment in custody.
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The repression of Kurds
in Syria has greatly intensified following
large-scale Kurdish demonstrations in March 2004.
The report is based on interviews with 30 Kurdish
activists recently released from prison, as well as
15 relatives of Kurdish activists still in jail. The
Syrian government refused to reply to requests for
information or meetings with Human Rights Watch.
"At a time when other countries in the region, from
Iraq to Turkey, are improving the treatment of their
Kurdish minority, Syria remains resistant to
change," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and
North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "In
fact, Syria has been especially hostile to any
Kurdish political or cultural expression."
Kurds, an estimated 10 percent of Syria's population
of 20 million, live primarily in the country's
northern and eastern regions. Human Rights Watch
found that since 2005, Syrian security forces have
repressed at least 14 Kurdish political and cultural
public gatherings,www.ekurd.netoverwhelmingly
peaceful, and often resorted to violence to disperse
the crowds. Not only have the security forces
prevented political meetings in support of Kurds'
minority rights, but also gatherings to celebrate
Nowruz (the Kurdish new year) and other cultural
celebrations. In at least two instances, the
security services fired on the crowds and caused
deaths.
"The Syrian government sees threats everywhere, even
in village new year celebrations," Whitson said. "If
the government wants better relations with its
Kurdish minority, it should address their legitimate
grievances instead of trying to silence them."
Syria has obligations under several international
treaties to uphold freedom of expression and
association, and the associated right to freedom of
assembly. In addition, international law requires
Syria to protect the identity of minorities and to
guarantee them the right to participate actively in
public and cultural life, including practicing their
language and celebrating their culture in private
and public.
Human Rights Watch also documented the arrests and
trials of at least 15 prominent Syrian Kurdish
political leaders since 2005. Since there is no
political parties law in Syria, none of the
political parties - let alone the Kurdish ones - are
licensed. Accordingly, any member of a party,
including all of the Kurdish parties, is vulnerable
to arrest for membership in an unlicensed
organization, a crime under Syria's penal code. Most
recently, on November 15, 2009, the Damascus
Criminal Court sentenced three leading members of
the Kurdish Azadi Party, which advocates an end to
discrimination against the Kurdish minority, to
three years in jail for "weakening national
sentiment" and "inciting sectarian or racial strife
or provoking conflict between sects and various
members of the nation."
Of the 30 former Kurdish detainees interviewed by
Human Rights watch, 12 said that security forces
tortured them. Most of those detained are referred
to military courts, where they can be convicted of
vaguely defined, overbroad "security charges," most
typically the charge of "spreading false or
exaggerated information that weakens national
sentiment" or committing an act or speech that
advocates "cutting off part of Syrian land to join
it to another country."
A Kurdish political activist detained in October
2008 for three months at the Palestine Branch of
Military Intelligence described the way the
investigators treated him:
If the investigator was not convinced by what I
said, the guards would take me to the "torture
square," where they would make me stand on my feet
for long days with my hands tied behind my back and
my eyes covered with a black cloth. I was made to
stand for 11 days with only brief periods of rest
for 10 minutes to eat. If I would fall due to lack
of sleep...they would throw cold water on me and
beat me with cables. I developed many illnesses
because of this torture. Tests I had done after my
release showed that I had inflamed joints as well as
infections in the stomach, kidneys, and chest.
(For more testimonials, see below)
Harassment of these activists continues even after
their release; security forces continue to call them
in for interrogation and frequently bar them from
traveling outside the country.
The European Union and the United States have been
eager to engage with Syria recently. Human Rights
Watch urged these governments to communicate their
strong disapproval of Syria's treatment of its
Kurdish minority and to emphasize that further
progress in their relations with Syria will depend
on concrete improvements in Syria's human rights
situation.
"Ignoring the treatment of Kurds in Syria will not
make the problem go away." Whitson said. "The
international community has played an important role
in improving the treatment of Kurds in Iraq and
Turkey and it needs to do the same for Syria's
Kurds."
Human Rights Watch called on the Syrian government
to:
· Free people being detained for peacefully
exercising their right to freedom of expression,
association, or assembly;
· Amend or abolish the vague security provisions
under the Syrian penal code that unlawfully restrict
free speech;
· Investigate officials alleged to have tortured or
mistreated detainees;
· Enact a law recognizing the right of political
parties or organize, and establish an independent
electoral commission to register new political
parties; and
· Form a commission to address the grievances of the
Kurdish minority in Syria.
The Human Rights Watch report, "Group Denial:
Repression of Kurdish Political and Cultural Rights
in Syria," is available at: http://www.hrw.org/en/node/86737
For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Syria,
please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/middle-eastn-africa/syria
For more information, please contact:
In Beirut, Nadim Houry (Arabic, English, French):
+961-3-639244 +961-3-639244 (mobile)
In Washington D.C., Sarah Leah Whitson (English):
+1-718-362-0172 +1-718-362-0172 (mobile)
Accounts from "Group Denial":
A participant in a musical event to celebrate
women's role in society organized on March 9, 2009
by a Kurdish party in the town of Qamishli described
how the security forces dispersed the crowd:
Fifteen minutes after the celebrations had started,
the security forces circled the room. They were
carrying guns and sticks, and they scared the women
and children. They quickly confiscated the [sound
system] speakers and the chairs.
An activist who was at a private home attending a
talk on the history of the Kurds described the
arrest of participants by Military Intelligence on
January 29, 2007:
We were 12 people gathered at Yasha's house to
attend a cultural talk on Kurds. Suddenly, members
of Aleppo's Military Intelligence came in and took
all of us to their branch. They kept us for 10 days
in Aleppo, and then they transferred us to the
Palestine Branch [of Military Intelligence] in
Damascus. They released seven of us and kept five in
detention. The five had confessed that they were
members in the Yekiti Party.
A member of the Kurdish Future Movement, a political
party, described his arrest while he was waiting to
board a bus:
The civilian police detained me in the town of `Amuda
and immediately transferred me to Political Security
in al-Hasakeh. They charged me with belonging to the
Kurdish Future Movement. They interrogated me for 12
days. During the investigation I was deprived of
everything. Their questions focused on the political
program of the party,www.ekurd.netits
internal rules, my role in the party, especially
after they had kidnapped Mr. Mesh`al Temmo, the
official spokesperson for the party. After the
interrogation they referred me on September 1 to a
military judge in Qamishli, who ordered my detention
for belonging to an unlicensed political party and
inciting sectarian strife.
A member of the PYD party, a Kurdish political
party, described the torture he endured while
detained by Political Security in `Ain `Arab in May
2006:
They tortured me physically and emotionally. The
physical torture began from the moment I arrived at
the branch. The officer who heads the branch beat me
personally. His men tied my legs to a Russian rifle,
and the officer beat me on my feet with a whip. The
beating covered various parts of my body. He would
insult and threaten me and insult the Kurds. He
found a notebook in my pocket where I had written
the name of the town by its Kurdish name, Kobani,
which the regime had changed to `Ain `Arab, so he
hit me with more than 100 lashes saying, "Damn you
and damn Kobani. Why don't you write `Ain `Arab?"
The torture lasted for almost six hours of on-off
beatings.
Copyright, respective
author or news agency, kurdnas com
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