HUMAN RIGHTS UNDER KURDISH RULE Abuses in PYD-Run Enclaves of Syria WATCH Under Kurdish Rule Abuses in PYD-run Enclaves of Syria Copyright © 2014 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-62313-1432 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. Human Rights Watch is an international organization with staff in more than 40 countries, and offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Goma, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Tunis, Washington DC, and Zurich. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org JUNE 2014 978-1-62313-1432 Under Kurdish Rule Abuses in PYD-run Enclaves of Syria Map of Syria ..................................................................................................................... i Summary ......................................................................................................................... 1 Recommendations ........................................................................................................... 6 To the PYD-led Interim Transitional Administration ................................................................... 6 Methodology ................................................................................................................... 9 I. Background ................................................................................................................ 10 Kurds in Syria ......................................................................................................................... 10 Kurds and the Syria Conflict .................................................................................................... 12 Declared Autonomy of the Mostly Kurdish Regions .................................................................. 14 Attacks on Kurdish Areas ........................................................................................................ 15 Border Closures and Humanitarian Access .............................................................................. 17 II. Arbitrary Arrests ........................................................................................................ 19 III. Due Process Violations ............................................................................................. 22 Shifting Laws .......................................................................................................................... 24 IV. Abuses in Detention .................................................................................................. 26 Death of Hanan Hamdosh ...................................................................................................... 28 Death of Rashwan Atash ........................................................................................................ 29 V. Prison Conditions ...................................................................................................... 31 VI. Unsolved Disappearances and Killings ...................................................................... 34 Amir Hamid ............................................................................................................................ 34 Ahmed Bonchaq ..................................................................................................................... 35 Bahzed Dorsen ....................................................................................................................... 36 Nidal, Ahmad and ʿAmar Badro ............................................................................................... 37 VII. Children in Security Forces ....................................................................................... 38 YPG Response and Ongoing Use of Children ............................................................................ 39 Asayish Response and Ongoing Use of Children ...................................................................... 42 Legal Standards ..................................................................................................................... 43 VIII. Amuda Protest, June 27-28, 2013 ............................................................................ 44 The Aftermath: Shootings, Mass Arrests, Beatings .................................................................. 47 The PYD’s Position .................................................................................................................. 50 IX. Legal Standards ........................................................................................................ 52 Appendix I ..................................................................................................................... 54 Charter of the Social Contract ................................................................................................. 54 Appendix II .................................................................................................................... 76 YPG Rules of Procedure ........................................................................................................... 76 Section 3 .......................................................................................................................... 78 Appendix III .................................................................................................................. 88 Asayish Rules and Regulations .............................................................................................. 88 Appendix IV ................................................................................................................... 95 Communications between Human Rights Watch and Asayieh .................................................. 95 Appendix V .................................................................................................................. 103 Communication between Human Rights Watch and YPG .......................................................... 103 Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... 108 Map of Syria © 2014 Human Rights Watch I HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JUNE 2014 Summary Over the past two years, the Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat (Democratic Union Party, PYD) – a Syrian Kurdish political party that stems from the Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK) in Turkey – has exercised de facto authority over three predominantly Kurdish areas in Syria’s north and northeast: `Afrin (Êfrîn in Kurdish), Ain al-`Arab (Kobani) and Jazira (Cezire). In January 2014, the PYD and allied parties established an interim administration in these areas. They have formed councils akin to ministries, courts and a police force, and introduced a new constitutional law. The PYD’s armed wing, the People’s Protection Units (Yekîneyên Parastina Gel, YPG), maintains external security in these three areas, and is involved in an armed conflict with Islamist non-state armed groups, primarily Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS). This report documents a range of human rights abuses in these PYD-controlled areas with emphasis on Jazira, which Human Rights Watch visited in February 2014. The report focuses on arbitrary arrests, abuse in detention, due process violations, unsolved disappearances and killings, and the use of children in PYD security forces. It does not examine alleged restrictions by PYD-led authorities on free speech and association, or alleged violations against the local, non-Kurdish communities. The background chapter summarizes abuses in the areas by Islamist non-state armed groups. Since 2011, Human Rights Watch has documented serious abuses perpetrated by the Syrian government and non-state actors in Syria, some of which amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. While the human rights abuses committed by the PYD and its security forces are far less egregious and widespread, they are nonetheless serious. As the de facto authority, the PYD is obliged under international human rights law to grant the people in the areas it controls – Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs, and others – their fundamental rights. Of particular concern are the harassment and arbitrary arrests of the PYD’s Kurdish political rivals. This report documents several cases, in which PYD security forces appear to have arbitrarily detained individuals affiliated to Kurdish opposition political parties, such as the Kurdish Democratic Party of Syria (KDPS), the Yekiti Party and the Azadi Party, 1 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JUNE 2014 due to their peaceful political activity against the PYD. Human Rights Watch heard credible allegations of dozens of similar arbitrary arrests. The PYD denies holding any political prisoners and said the men whose cases we documented were arrested for criminal acts, such as drug trafficking and bomb attacks. In April 2014, a PYD-run court in `Afrin convicted 13 people, including five KDPS members, for various bomb attacks in a trial that seemingly failed to meet international standards. The judges apparently convicted