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Kurds in Iran and Syria continue to face
oppression: Annual Report on Human Rights 2009
23.3.2010
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March
23, 2010
LONDON,— Last
week the United Kingdom launched its annual report
on Human Rights for 2009. The report says Kurds in
Iran and Syria continue to face intimidation and
discrimination, while it notes that Turkey is
planning to lift bans on Kurdish.
Turkey to lift ban on
Kurdish
According to the report, Turkey has yet to grant
specific rights on ethnic, religious or linguistic
grounds in order to help preserve citizens’
identity, but the report suggests that Turkey plans
reforms to address the problems of Turkey’s
minorities, including the Roma and Kurds. “There are
indications that the remaining bans on the use of
languages other than Turkish will be lifted, and the
Turkish Broadcasting Regulator introduced
legislation in September permitting 24-hour
television and radio broadcasting in other
languages.”
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Presented to Parliament
by the Secretary of State for Foreign and
Commonwealth Affairs by Command of Her Majesty March
2010 |
Kurds face discrimination
in Syria
While the report notes positive reforms in Turkey,
it suggests that Syria’s estimated 1.7 million Kurds
continue to suffer from discrimination, lack of
political representation, and tight restrictions on
social and cultural expression. “In particular,
there are a number of measures in place repressing
Kurdish identity,www.ekurd.netthrough
restricting the use of the Kurdish language in
public, in schools and in the workplace.
Kurdish-language publications are banned and
celebrations of Kurdish festivities, such as Nowruz,
the traditional Kurdish New Year, are prohibited.
The report adds that 300,000 Kurds continue to be
denied recognised citizenship, while Presidential
Decree 49 questions the rights of Syrian citizens to
hold property rights in the border areas of the
country and particularly affects the Kurdish
population. “Kurds in Syria claim that it
effectively prohibits them from selling, buying or
inheriting land.”
Syria using bulldozers
against Kurds
According to the report more than 150 Kurds were
detained as political prisoners in 2009 in
demonstrations and Kurdish New Year celebrations. On
20 march 2009, the police used a bulldozer to break
the main stages at the celebrations in five Kurdish
towns and villages. Apart from arrests, the report
talks about nineteen cases of deaths of Kurds during
military service, suggesting that evidence points to
death by torture or shooting that could not have
been self-inflicted.
Ethnic minorities face
intimidation in Iran
The report is also not positive about the human
rights conditions in Iran. “Members of Iran’s ethnic
minority groups from the Ahwaz, Kurdistan,
Khuzestan, Baluchistan and Turkmenistan regions also
face increasing intimidation.” The report suggests
that days after the election result saw a series of
mass executions in Iran’s border regions, viewed by
many as a warning sign to the local populations. The
majority of the people facing death penalty are
Kurds.
“On 11 November, Ehsan Fattahian was executed after
a ten-year sentence to be served in exile was
increased to a death sentence by a higher court. We
expressed concern at reports that Fattahian was
tortured during detention, as well as irregularities
during his trial. Many members of minority groups
remain on death row accused of terrorism, treason,
or acting against national security.”
UK supports media and
women’s rights in Kurdistan
The UK is also active in monitoring the human rights
situation in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan and supporting
the Independent Media Centre in Kurdistan and the
German NGO called WADI, which has been working to
reduce the practice of female genital mutilation in
the Kurdish region with the support of the Kurdish
government, the UN and the Dutch foreign Ministry.
It’s known that Rt Hon Ann Clwyd MP, Prime
Minister’s Special Envoy on Human Rights in Iraq,
has good relations with the Kurds. She told the Iraq
inquiry that the Kurdish people believed the only
way of ending human rights abuses, was by removing
Saddam Hussein from power.
The report says that official visits to prisons in
the Kurdish region of Iraq in November revealed the
Kurdish Regional Government’s commitment to
providing adequate facilities and focus on
rehabilitation.
KRG acknowledges existence
of FGM
While it notes that domestic violence and “honour”
killing remain a problem in Iraq and that thousands
of Iraqi women are beaten or killed each year, it
says honour killings in the Kurdish region are now
punished as harshly as other murders and are not
viewed differently under the law. “Female genital
mutilation [FGM] is also widespread. But the Kurdish
Regional Government and a growing percentage of the
population are increasingly acknowledging its
existence and the need to address the issue.”
The United Kingdom launched its annual report on
Human Rights for 2009:
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