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Jailed Kurds on Syria hunger strike:
rights group
11.3.2011 |
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March
11, 2011
DAMASCUS,
— Dozens of jailed Kurds in Syria started a hunger
strike on Thursday in solidarity with rights
activists who have mounted the same action in a
prison near Damascus, a rights group said.
"Dozens of Kurds jailed in Syria -- members of
Yakiti party and the Democratic Union -- have
started a hunger strike in solidarity with the
prisoners of conscience in Adra," said the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights.
Thirteen activists held in Adra said in a statement
that their protest was launched on Monday to demand
"an end to political detention and injustice, as
well as the recovery of stolen civil and political
rights" in Syria.
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One of those detained, leading human rights lawyer
Haythem al-Maleh, was freed on Tuesday under a
presidential pardon.
Human rights advocates
have repeatedly criticised the tight controls
imposed on civil society through arbitrary
detention, restrictions on freedom of expression and
other forms of repression.
On Tuesday, 12 Syrian rights groups called for the
"amendment of all laws that prevent human rights
organisations from working openly and freely, and
civil society from playing its role effectively."
They also asked the authorities to "urgently take
all necessary steps to cancel all forms of
discrimination against the Kurdish people" who form
nine percent of the Syrian population.
"The Kurds are entitled to enjoy their culture and
use their language in accordance with their civil,
political, cultural, social and economic rights,"
they said in a joint statement.
Over 2 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.
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,www.ekurd.netKurdish
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.
Kurds in Syria also suffer severe discrimination
because of their ethnicity. Many of them are denied
Syrian nationality and therefore do not receive the
full provision of education, employment, health care
and other rights enjoyed by Syrian nationals.
The names of the jailed activists on hunger strike:
• Haitham al-Maleh
• Habib al-Saleh
• Mustafa Juma
• Ali al-Abdullah
• Mahmoud Barish
• Kamal Labwani
• Mohammed Saeed al-Omar
• Mashaal al-Tammo
• Anwar al-Bunni
• Khalaf al-Jarboah
• Saadoun Shekho
• Ismail Abdi (German citizen)
• Kamal Sheikho
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author or news agency,
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