09/11/2009
To: Human Rights Organisations and the International Community
On 30th October 2009, a group of the Kurdish prisoners of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the PKK, and the Women’s Union Organisation (Yekitiya Star) in Adra Prison, Damascus, Syria, went on undefined hunger strike to protest against arbitrary arrest, torture, isolation and refusal to allow access to visitors and the outside world. The indeterminate hunger strike will continue until the Syrian Authorities meet the prisoners’ demands, by allowing them to receive a fair trial, granting visits from families and relatives, allowing them to meet other prisoners, and having access to media, including radio and TV which are available to other prisoners.
On 3 November 2009, the Supreme State Security Court in Damascus sentenced five Kurdish political activists, accused of being members of the PYD to between seven and half and twelve years in prison, according to the report from the Syrian Human Rights Committee (MAD).
The oppressive Syrian government has been using the State of Emergency in force since 1963, to continue giving the military and political security forces sweeping powers of arbitrary arrest and indefinite detentions. Over 300 political prisoners, members of PYD, in Adra and Sednaye military prison, some of whom have been unjustly tried and others are still waiting arbitrary charges. According to the Amnesty International report 2008, over 1500 prisoners of conscience including political Activists, Human Rights and Democracy Defenders remained in prison.
The Kurds in Syria are deprived of their basic human rights and there is no legitimate recognition of their cultural, social, economic and political rights. They have been subject to ethnic cleansing and racial and cultural genocide by the oppressive Syrian regime, which has been implementing racist and discriminatory policies, such as the Exceptional Census of 1962 and Decree No.49, 2008, resulting in half a million Kurds becoming stateless, losing their homes and properties and being forcibly deported.
We, the following organisations call upon the Syrian Government to:
• respond to the demands of Kurdish prisoners of conscience who are on hunger strike.
• reform the Syrian court and legal system according to international standards.
• abolish the state of emergency and end arbitrary arrests, torture and ill-treatment of all political prisoners.
• release all political prisoners, human rights- and Democracy Defenders
We further call upon the International Community, United Nations, Human rights and other non-governmental organisations to:
• support the Kurdish prisoners of conscience who are on hunger strikes by asking the Syrian Government to end its human rights abuses and respond to the demands of the prisoners.
• put pressure on the Syrian Government to meet its international obligations by respecting international laws and regulations.
• demand that the Syrian Government grant the constitutional rights of Kurds and end its discriminatory policies against all minorities in Syria.
Kurdish Human Rights Initiative - Democratic Union Party (PYD) www.pyd.se - Kurdish Federation in the UK Fedbir@yahoo.co.uk - Kurdistan National Congress KNK knklondon@gn.apc.ogr
Background
The Kurdish People are the second largest ethnic entity in Syria, consisting of more than three million of the total population. The Kurds have been living on their ancient historical homeland and have actively contributed to liberating and building up the modern republic of Syria. Successive Syrian governments after independence in 1946 have denied the legitimate national rights of the Kurdish people and their contributions to achieving independence. Since the Baath Party seized power after the coup of March 1963 and declared itself the autocrat of the country, it has been systematically applying all political, military and psychological means to eradicate the Kurdish existence and forcibly assimilate the Kurdish national identity and annihilate their culture. These racist discriminatory policies have deprived the Kurds of the constitutional recognition of their cultural and national existence. The following atrocities are an ongoing part of these policies of the Syrian totalitarian regime for nearly half a century:
Exceptional Census
The oppressive Syrian regime, in flagrant breach of human rights and international law, developed the racist, discriminatory Census Article 93, issued on 23/08/1962 and implemented on 05/10/1962, limited to Al Hasakah and Kurdish regions, which initially resulted in more than 150,000 and now increased to more than half a million, Kurds, who had been living in their own homeland, being stripped of their Syrian nationality certificate, thereby depriving them of the basic human right of surviving and prospering in their own country. Those whose nationality was withdrawn, and henceforth considered as foreigners in their own land, have no right to work in formal government departments, nor to own property, nor can they have access to education and health facilities. They cannot register their marriages and neither are they allowed to register their children in the state civil records. They cannot travel abroad as they cannot obtain a passport. They have no rights to practice some freelance professions such as medicine, law and teaching, which require a nationality certificate. In conclusion, they have no birthright to live in their own homeland. This racial and cultural genocide continues today, after more than four decades.
The “Arab Belt” and Arabisation Policy
Since the racist Baath Party seized power in the 1960s, the Kurds have been cruelly subjected to a ethnic cleansing, racial and cultural genocide, aiming to eradicate the whole Kurdish national and cultural existence by isolating and separating the northern and southern parts of Kurdistan. On 24/6/1974 the Chauvinist Government issued the racist Article 521, known as “The Arab Belt” which resulted in the seizure of the Kurdish agricultural lands (350km long and 15 km wide), and thousands of Kurdish land owners and farmers were forcibly driven from their own property, which was confiscated and given to Arab settlers and farmers coming from Arab regions. This widespread annexation of Kurdish agricultural lands and the settlement of immigrant Arabs resulted in splitting families and the destruction of social relationships, and in Arabising the names of villages and towns, which has altered the character of the whole region. This inhuman deprivation of natural ownership rights and livelihood has terrorized the Kurdish population who were deported from their cultural homelands and property and forced to live in isolation and destitution in big metropolitan cities.
Discrimination Decree No 49
The Decree No 49 that, was signed by Syrian president in September 2008 is another systemic discrimination against the country’s Kurdish population and further undermine the human rights. This Decree consolidates harsh restrictions and deprived the Kurdish people of the ownership and use of land, preventing the development of the Kurdish the local economies.
Since the Kurdish uprising (Serhildan ) of March 2004 more then 33 Kurdish soldiers have been killed while serving in the Syrian Army. So Far none investigation neither post-mortem examination were carried out. The military Authorities explained the most of these cases as accidental or suicidal. The UN International Investigation must independently investigate these killing of the Kurdish soldiers and the result should be publicly made.
The Political Repression of the Kurds in Syria
The Baath regime launched a campaign to eradicate all Kurdish national identity including Kurdish cultural and social activities. Kurdish political leaders, Human Rights Activists academics and intellectuals were brutally executed, imprisoned or exiled
On 31st November 1960 the Syrian authorities committed a horrific racial genocide in the Amuda Cinema where 380 Kurdish children were deliberately burnt to death while on a school excursion, watching a film on the Algerian revolution.
In 1993, 72 Kurdish prisoners were burnt to death and 100 were injured in the Central Prison in Hasakah City. To date, hundreds of Kurdish activists and academics are still dying under the brutal torture of this barbaric regime.
On 12th March 2004 the Syrian secret police and the Baathist Arabs incited and attacked Kurdish civilians in Quamishly and other Kurdish cities and areas. More than 30 Kurds were murdered and hundreds injured during these incursions. Hundreds more were arrested.
According to Amnesty International’s 2008, report 1,500 Political and Human Rights activists were arrested and hundred more who were arrested in previous years remained in detention. These inhuman treatments of the Kurds in Syria have been reported and concerned by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Refugees International and Kurdish Human Rights Project.
