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Tribute to Sardasht Osman, the Kurdish journalist murdered in
Iraqi Kurdistan one year ago |
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Tribute to Sardasht Osman, the Kurdish
journalist murdered in Iraqi Kurdistan one year ago
4.5.2011 |
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May 4, 2011
PARIS,
France, — A year has passed since Sardasht Osman was
murdered. A year since this 23-year-old journalist
was kidnapped by gunmen outside the foreign language
department at Salahaddin University in Erbil on 4
May 2010 only to be found
dead four days
later in Mosul with a bullet in his head. A year of
freedom and impunity for his murderers.
Reporters Without Borders pays tribute today to
Osman, who despite his youth had already written
many articles, including an op-ed piece for the
Kurdistan Post at the end of 2009 entitled, “If
only I were Massoud Barzani’s son-in-law.”
Our thoughts are with his family, friends and
colleagues on this sad anniversary. At the same
time, we question the Kurdistan Regional Government
KRG’s determination to shed light on this murder and
condemn the lack of transparency surrounding its
investigation.
The anniversary comes at a time of tension. The
security forces of the two political parties that
control Kurdistan’s government keep harassing
journalists covering the street protests that have
been taking place in the region since mid-February.
Press freedom violations have increased in recent
weeks. Journalists are constantly the targets of
death threats, acts of intimidation, physical
attacks and murder attempts. Their offices have also
been attacked and ransacked.
Kurdistan’s president, Massoud Barzani, appointed a
special commission under interior ministry control
to investigate Osman’s abduction and murder. But
Osman’s family quickly challenged the commission’s
independence.
During a fact-finding visit to Kurdistan in July
2010, a Reporters Without Borders delegation tried
to establish the status of the investigation and
sought in vain to meet with members of the
commission.
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Kurdish journalist and student Sardasht Osman (23) was kidnapped
in the capital of the semiautonomous Kurdistan
region of Iraq, tortured and then killed with
two bullets in the head for his scathing articles
against Massoud Barzani and Kurdistan Regional
Government KRG. |
None of the people the
delegation spoke to was able or willing to name any
of its members. The flagrant lack of transparency
was highlighted in the report that Reporters Without
Borders released on 4 November.
The commission issued its initial findings on 15
October. It said in a press release that Osman’s
murder had nothing to do with his activities as a
journalist. It stemmed, it said, from his refusal to
cooperate with Ansar Al-Islam,www.ekurd.neta
radical Islamic group linked to Al-Qaeda. Hicham
Mahmoud Ismail, a driver and mechanic living in Beji
who had been arrested on suspicion of carrying out
Osman’s abduction had confessed to transporting him
from Shargat (near Tigrit) to Mosul at the group’s
behest without knowing he was to be killed, the
press release said.
The family immediately disputed the findings. “We
not only reject the results of the enquiry but we
also condemn its actions and voice our anger at
these attempts to portray Sardasht as a terrorist
who cooperated with Ansar Al-Islam,” the family said
in a statement. “Anyone who knew Sardasht or read
his articles knew that he was a secular person far
removed from terrorist ideology.”
Ansar Al-Islam issued a statement on 23 October
denying any role in his murder.
So, one year after his death, his murderers are
still at large. And he is not the only young
journalist to have been murdered in Iraqi Kurdistan
in recent years. Soran Mama Hama, who worked for
Lvin Magazine and who was also 23, was gunned down
at his home in Kirkuk on 21 July 2008.
On 15 May, Reporters Without Borders will publish a
Kurdish-language version of the Handbook for
Journalists, which was produced in partnership with
UNESCO. The Kurdish-language version is being
brought out with help from the Aras publishing
house.
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author or news agency, rsf.org
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