Information and Liaison Bulletin N°290 MAY 2009 the Publication of This Bulletin Enjoys a Subsidy
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
INSTITUT KUDE RPARD IS E Information and liaison bulletin N°290 MAY 2009 The publication of this Bulletin enjoys a subsidy from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGCID) aqnd the Fonds d’action et de soutien pour l’intégration et la lutte contre les discriminations (The Fund for action and support of integration and the struggle against discrimination) This bulletin is issued in French and English Price per issue : France: 6 € — Abroad : 7,5 € Annual subscribtion (12 issues) France : 60 € — Elsewhere : 75 € Contents • AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHES ITS REPORTS ON IRAN, IRAQ, SYRIA AND TURKEY. • THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN IRAQI KURDISTAN HAS STARTED. • TURKEY: A BLOODY SETTLING UP OF OLD SCORES BETWEEN “VILLAGE GUARDIANS”. • IRB IL: THE EXPORTING OF KURDISH OIL MAY BEGIN IN JUNE. • SYRIA: MASHAL TEMO HAS BEEN SENTENCED. • IRAN: QALA MERE HAS DIED. AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHES ITS REPORTS ON IRAN, IRAQ, SYRIA AND TURKEY mnesty International of their “ economic, social and membership of PJAK, the has published its cultural rights as well as their civic Iranian branch of the PKK. The A reports on Human and political rights ”. The use of international NGO particularly Rights and their Kurdish, like the other minority recalls the case of Farzad violations throughout languages, is forbidden in Kamangar, a Kurdish teacher the world. The situation of the schools and in the who has always denied Kurds is also raised in the administration, and those membership of PJAK who was reports on Iran, Syria, Turkey Iranians who are active in favour severely tortured in detention. and Iraq, with a special section of their economic, social and He faces a death sentence. From devoted to Iraqi Kurdistan. cultural rights are frequently August to October 2008, over 50 arrested, threatened and jailed. prisoners went on hunger strike According to this organisation, in protest against the execution Iraq continues to “marginalise Amnesty International also of Kurds and to “ demand respect its ethnic minorities, “ particularly highlights the irregularity of the of the civil rights of a certain the Azeris, the Baluchis and the trials that have sentenced to number of Kurds in detention ”. Kurds ”, who attack the violations death Kurds accused of In general, attempts to promote • 2 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 290 • May 2009 the Kurdish language and Many have been made stateless and terrorist Act, for having sung an culture in Iran exposes activists do not enjoy economic and social anthem in the Kurdish language, to police persecution and rights ”. Mashaal al-Tammo was amongst other songs, during a iniquitous sentences. In arrested on 15 August 2008 for cultural festival. They were detention since July 2007, political activity in a Kurdish acquitted at their first appearance in Mohammad Sadiq Kubudvand, movement and faces a death Court, but the warrant for the arrest who founded and presides the sentence for “ an attempt to start a of the choirmaster was upheld ”. Organisation for Human Rights civil war or religious dissentions ” Several Newroz festivities were in Kurdistan, was tried and and “ conspiracy ”. banned in towns in Kurdistan. sentenced to ten years imprisonment in May 2008 for In general, Kurdish identity is Young people have been acting ““ against the security of the repressed, particularly the use of subjected, as a general rule, to State by creating the Organisation the language and culture. Decree increasing violence and ill for Human Rights in Kurdistan ” N°49 of 10 September 2008 treatment by the police. In the and for “ propaganda against the strongly restricts the right to cases of demonstrations, often regime ”. The latter sentence was housing accommodation and banned without any valid reason quashed on appeal, but the ten- property owning in the border and “ broken up using excessive year sentence was confirmed. regions — which affects most of force, often without any attempt to Mohammad Sadiq Kabundvand the areas inhabited by Kurds. try non-violent methods ”, children has been detained in a secret and and adolescents have been denied any visits from his The report is particularly severe struck hard and jailed along lawyer or family for a long time. about Turkey and the fact that with adults. Acts of violence by He has also been denied any the majority of the breaches of the police of the State generally medical attention for a long human rights restrictions on go unpunished or very lightly time. freedom are related to the reprimanded. Thus: “ police were Kurdish question. The DTP is filmed while they were beating up The State has not undertaken still in danger of being banned E.C., a 15-year-old boy who they any actions to protect women by the Constitutional Court had summoned on the fringes of a from domestic violence, whereas the AKP, the party in demonstration, in Hakkari. A although a large number of cases office, has just escaped this. Prosecutor dismissed a complaint of self-immolation are due to made about the violence. On the family oppression. On the other The armed conflict with the PKK other hand the young boy was taken hand active feminists are also has caused civilian casualties in to court for having taken part in the exposed to State repression, even through bomb attacks “ often demonstration ”. Following the though their actions are committed by isolated individuals or October demonstrations for the peaceful, like Parvin Ardalan unidentified groups ”. Outside release of Abdullah Ocalan, who faces a heavy prison Turkish Kurdistan itself, Kurds “over a hundred minors were sentence. have been subjected to acts of charged with offences that can carry aggression because of their sentences of up to twenty years The majority of the Kurds are origins: “ some have been harassed imprisonment ”. At Adana, the Sunni Moslems or members of or attacked and unknown people or prefect threatened collective religious minorities like the Ahl- unidentified groups have taken it punishment to “ the families of e-Haqq. They are thus exposed out on their goods and property. In children who had demonstrated ”. to persecution from the Shiite September, the county of Altinova, powers that be or to various in Western Turkey, was the scene of The anti-terrorist laws also forms of discrimination. Thus, aggressions of this kind for several enable the sentencing of several Amnesty reveals: “ The school days running ”. people accused of membership directors must inform the local of the PKK on the basis of security services of the presence, in The anti-terrorist laws continue doubtful or flimsy evidence. their schools, of any Baha’is or to repress any display of “Murat Istkirik was sentenced to followers of other ´subversive sects’ Kurdish culture in accordance seven years jail for “membership of such as the Ali-Ilahi or Ahl-e- with the whims of the a terrorist organisation” solely on Haqq ”. prosecutors. Thus: “ nine children the basis of his attending the funeral all members of the municipal choir of a member of the PKK and of The report indicates that in of Yenisehir, a Diyarbekir having been photographed making Syria: “ members of the Kurdish neighbourhood, were sued on the the “V” sign. In September minority suffer from discrimination. basis of Article 72 of the Anti- Selahattin Okten was sentenced to n° 290 • May 2009 Information and liaison bulletin • 3• life imprisonment for having taken from Mosul following attacks on Domestic violence has not part in armed operations on behalf their community. The report disappeared, nor have “honour of the PKK. The proof his guilt was points out that “ the majority have crimes”, and women have been based on unreliable testimony said found refuge in nearby villages or in burnt or killed by members of to have been obtained by torture ”. Dohuk, Irbil or Kirkuk, but about their family. A hostel was 400 have left for Syria. According to attacked by armed men to Prison conditions in Turkey are information collected, about a third “punish ” a woman member of still very bad, with ill treatment of the displaced people had returned their family, who had sought and solitary confinement of to Mosul by the end or the year ”. refuge there and who was detainees. Thus Amnesty seriously injured. Associations to International recalls the report of The Kurdistan Region of Iraq is defend women have had some the European Commission for the the only one where organisation of their members threatened by Prevention of Torture that has noted “ advances ” on family members of women they recommended that Abdullah questions of Human Rights. were protecting. Amnesty Ocalan, the PKK leader, “ should Thus: “ several hundreds of political mainly criticises the Kurdish undergo medical examination, that prisoners, including several who Police of a certain laxity in the material conditions of his had been detained for several years identifying and arresting several detention should be improved and without being brought to trial, had murderers involved in “honour that the Turkish authorities should been freed ”. Amnesty also crimes”. take measures to enable him to have approved the repeal of the more contact with the outside world ”. penalty of imprisonment for The report on the Asayish “defamation” in the course of aroused official protests from the In Iraq, Amnesty International the debate on the new press laws head of the security services in observed a significant drop in as well as the legal limitations Irbil, who pointed out that several violence but points out that “ all imposed on polygamy. points were “ out of date