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Iran accused of murder campaign against
Kurds
27.2.2010
By Adam Sage, Paris
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February
27, 2010
Iran's religious leadership is orchestrating a
campaign of killings and arrests in Kurd provinces
as it seeks to prevent pro-democracy protests from
spreading to the country's ethnic minorities, an
Iranian Kurd leader has said.
In an interview with The Times, Abdullah Mohtadi,
secretary general of the Komala Party, said Tehran
had ordered a security crackdown that had brought
renewed oppression to Kurd areas in the wake of
protests against last year's contested presidential
election.
He also accused Britain and other Western
governments of turning their backs on the plight of
the country's Kurdish population, estimated at five
million by the US authorities and up to 12 million
by Mr Mohtadi. ''We need everything, but we get
nothing,'' he said.
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Abdullah Mohtadi, secretary general of the Komala
Party |
About
35 million Kurds live in Turkey, Iraq and Syria, as
well as Iran, where Mr Mohtadi said they faced a
long history of discrimination, harassment and
violence.
The interview took place in Paris a day after Tehran
had announced the capture of Abdolmalek Rigi, the
leader of Jundallah, the Sunni militant group
responsible for a series of attacks on Iran's
Revolutionary Guards. Mr Mohtadi said that he, too,
was being hunted.
With Iran's regime desperate to stop the Green
movement sparking rebellion among the minorities
that constitute almost half the population, he said
intelligence agents would be prepared to capture or
kill him anywhere in the world, including Europe.
"There are many people like me who really are in
danger.''
Unable to operate in Iran, his party has based
itself in Iraq, where it has several hundred
peshmergas, or armed fighters. Mr Mohtadi said their
presence was necessary to prevent assassination
attempts on Komala's leadership, but insisted that
his party had abandoned violent action in favour of
political strategies in Iran.
It has a television station, which is regularly
blocked by the Iranian authorities, and a newspaper,
which is smuggled across the border to promote calls
for a democratic,www.ekurd.netdecentralised
political system in Iran. But anyone caught reading
the newspaper is almost certain to be summoned by
Iranian secret services and detained, said Mr
Mohtadi.
''No kind of political activity is authorised'' and
retaliation for breaches of the law was ''very rapid
and very harsh''. Mr Mohtadi said Tehran had always
treated Kurds ''like enemies and looked at the
Kurdish people only from a security point of view.''
Now the repression had been stepped up. ''They are
arresting more people, threatening more of them,
harassing more of them, calling more of them to the
intelligence services. There are more clandestine
killings going on as well."
He said more than 30 Kurds had been placed on death
row, mostly for civil activism. Farzad Kamangar, 32,
a teacher, had his sentence commuted to 30 years in
prison this week following an international campaign
to save him.
On the anniversary of the Iranian revolution this
month, Mr Mohtadi said so many military vehicles
were sent to Kurdish provinces ''that it was like
being in an occupied country. There was an
unofficial curfew imposed and helicopters flying
over all the main cities.''
The show of strength was designed to nip a Kurdish
protest movement in the bud ''because they know that
from the moment that happens, it will be difficult
to contain,'' said Mr Mohtadi.
Nevertheless, there are signs of armed uprising in
Iran's Kurdish provinces. Earlier this month, for
instance, Tehran said it had killed four members of
a Komala splinter group which it blamed for taking
the lives of three policemen in December. This week,
the Iranian authorities said they had foiled a
bombing by the same faction.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
Timesonline co.uk
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