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HRW call on Iran to end repression in
Kurdish areas (Iranian Kurdistan)
9.1.2009
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Peaceful Dissidents Jailed, Books and Publications
Banned
January
9, 2009
NEW YORK, — The government of Iran should
amend or abolish broadly worded national security
laws used to stifle peaceful dissent in the
country's Kurdish areas (Iranian Kurdistan) and end
arbitrary arrests of Kurdish critics and dissidents,
Human Rights Watch said in a report released Friday.
The 42-page report, "Iran: Freedom of Expression and
Association in the Kurdish Regions," documents how
Iranian authorities use security laws, press laws,
and other legislation to arrest and prosecute
Iranian Kurds solely for trying to exercise their
right to freedom of expression and association. The
use of these laws to suppress basic rights,www.ekurd.net
while not new, has
greatly intensified since President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad came to power in August 2005.
"Iranian authorities show little tolerance of
political dissent anywhere in the country, but they
are particularly hostile to dissent in minority
areas where there has been any history of separatist
activities," said Joe Stork, deputy director of
Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa
Division.
Kurds account for 4.5 million of the 69 million
people in Iran, and live mainly in the country's
northwest regions. Political movements there have
frequently campaigned for greater regional autonomy.
The main Iranian Kurdish parties with a long history
of activism deny that they engage in armed activity
and the government has not accused these groups of
any such activity since the early 1990s.
"No one would contest a government's right to
suppress violence," Stork said. "But this is not the
case here. What is going on in the Kurdish areas of
Iran is the routine suppression of legitimate
peaceful opposition."
The new report documents how the government has
closed Persian- and Kurdish-language newspapers and
journals, banned books, and punished publishers,
journalists, and writers for opposing and
criticizing government policies. Authorities also
suppress legitimate activities of nongovernmental
organizations by denying registration permits or
charging individuals working with such organizations
with spurious security offenses.
One victim of the government's repression is Farazad
Kamangar,www.ekurd.net
a superintendent of high
schools in the city of Kamayaran and an activist
with the Organization for the Defense of Human
Rights in Kurdistan. He has been in detention since
his arrest in July 2006. The new report reproduces a
letter Kamangar smuggled out of prison describing
how officials subjected him to torture during
interrogation.
On February 25, 2008, Branch 30 of Iran's
Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death on
charges of "endangering national security."
Prosecutors charged that he was a member of the
Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), but
provided no evidence to support the allegation. In
July, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence.
Kamangar's lawyer has appealed to the head of the
judiciary to intervene, the only remaining option
for challenging the sentence.
In a report released in July 2008, the human rights
organisation, Amnesty International
expressed concern
about the increased repression of Kurdish Iranians,
particularly human rights defenders.
The report cited examples of religious and cultural
discrimination against the estimated 12 million
Kurds who live in Iran.
“We urge the Iranian authorities to take concrete
measures to end any discrimination and associated
human rights violations that Kurds, indeed all
minorities in Iran, face,” Amnesty said in its
report.
“Kurds and all other members of minority communities
in Iran, men, women and children, are entitled to
enjoy their full range of human rights.”
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
hrw org | Agencies
Iranian Kurdistan
**
Iranian Kurdistan (Kurdish: Kurdistana Îranę or
Kurdistana Rojhilat (Eastern Kurdistan) or Rojhilatę
Kurdistan (East of Kurdistan)) is an unofficial name
for the parts of Iran inhabited by Kurds and has
borders with Iraq and Turkey. It includes the
greater parts of West Azerbaijan province, Kurdistan
Province, Kermanshah Province, and Ilam Province.
Kurds form the majority of the population of this
region with an estimated population of 12 million.
The region is the eastern part of the greater
cultural-geographical area called Kurdistan.
More about Iranian Kurdistan
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