Repression of Kurds in Syria is widespread
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Demonstration in Damascus, June 2003, calling for Syrian Kurdish children’s rights to be respected, including the right to be taught in their own language. Police officers and security forces broke up the peaceful protest, injuring about 20 people. Four of the participants remain imprisoned today.
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We were put in a closed room… sleeping on the floor with lice and mice. Our hair was shaved. They would only open the door to throw in the food then close the door again. [And] during meals they would turn on the water tap and put us under it clothed, then we would be beaten.”
Testimony given to AI by Hassan (not his real name), detained for two months following violence in Qamishli, Syria in March 2004
Security forces reportedly fired live bullets into the Kurdish section of the crowd when tensions rose between rival Arab and Kurdish fans during a football match in March 2004, in the north-eastern town of Qamishli. Several people were killed. The next day, police officers opened fire on a funeral procession for Kurds killed the previous day. This led to two days of protests and riots in largely Kurdish populated towns across northern Syria. At least 30 Kurds were killed.
More than 2,000 people, almost all of them Kurds, are believed to have been detained following these events. Most were held incommunicado and there are widespread reports of torture and ill-treatment of detainees, including children, women and the elderly. Children as young as 12 were reportedly beaten with electric cables and had their heads bashed together.
Testimonies of torture of adults cite electric shocks, having fingernails pulled off and being sexually humiliated. At least five Kurds died allegedly as a result of torture and ill-treatment in custody. A further six Kurdish conscripts are reported to have been killed in suspicious circumstances on account of their Kurdish identity.
About 200 Kurds detained during the March 2004 events were still held at the beginning of 2005. Fifteen of them were referred to trial before the Supreme State Security Court (SSSC). Trials before the SSSC, which was created 42 years ago under Syria’s emergency laws, do not meet international standards for fair trials: its decisions are not subject to appeal and “confessions” allegedly extracted under torture are accepted as evidence.
The Kurds are the second largest ethnic group in Syria. However, Kurdish is not recognized as an official language and it is forbidden to publish materials in Kurdish. Kurdish cannot be used in schools and in the workplace. Tens of thousands of “stateless” Kurds are not allowed to own property, work in various professions, or study at university. Kurds who peacefully protest such discrimination face harassment, detention, torture and unfair trials.
The Syrian authorities must investigate all allegations of torture and suspected unlawful killings. Those suspected of having committed torture or having carried out unlawful killings should be brought to justice. The Syrian government should end the prohibitions imposed on Kurdish people living in Syria including the ban on use of the Kurdish language in schools and the workplace.
See AI's document
Syria: Kurds in the Syrian Arab Republic one year after the March 2004 events (MDE 24/002/2005).
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ISSN 1472-443X . AI Index NWS 21/002/2005
Amnesty International, International Secretariat, Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street, London, WC1X 0DW, United Kingdom
email:newslett@amnesty.org
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