18
March 2004
2. "Syria's Treatment of Kurds Sparks Concern", Amnesty International is expressing "serious concerns" about reports that least 20 people have been killed and hundreds of Syrian Kurds arrested by security forces since clashes broke out at a football match in the largely Kurdish town of Qamishli last Friday.
3. "Torture in Turkey: the ongoing practice of torture and ill-treatment", The passage of legal reforms aimed at improving human rights standards to meet EU accession requirements has failed to prevent the widespread and systematic deployment of torture and ill-treatment
4. "New constitution needed before Turkey joins EU, body says", Turkey will probably have to draw up a new constitution to reflect profound changes required for membership of the European Union, an influential EU body said on Wednesday.
5. "Kurds battle Syrian police", At least eight people killed; Iraqi Kurds protest in Arbil at plight of Syrian Kurds
6. "Denktash going to pull out", Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf R. Denktash said Wednesday that he was pulling out of next week's four-party talks on a United Nations plan to reunite the divided Mediterranean island because he didn't believe the negotiations would lead to a settlement.
1. - SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER - "Kurdish uprising grows in Syria":
By SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN / March 18, 2004
For days, the world's attention has been on Madrid and the horrific bombings now thought to be the work of Islamic extremists, perhaps in retaliation for Spain's support of the war in Iraq.
Less noticed was a flurry of violence in Syria that could presage another dreaded consequence of the war -- an uprising of Kurds demanding a country of their own.
The violence "was quite serious," said Rime Allas, an associate fellow at London's Royal Institute of International Affairs. "It would be foolish to ignore there are Kurdish grievances in the various countries where they are living."
Some 20 million Kurds, a non-Arab people with a unique language and customs, inhabit the mountainous regions of Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran. Denied a state of their own after World War I, they have clung to their culture despite often brutal oppression.
The latest trouble began Friday at a soccer game in Qameshli, a Kurdish city in northeast Syria not far from Iraq. According to witnesses, Arab fans waved pictures of Saddam Hussein and chanted pro-Hussein slogans.
That inflamed the Kurds, sparking clashes in which Syrian police opened fire. At least 14 Kurds were killed, dozens wounded and many buildings vandalized as Kurds rioted throughout the weekend. Kurdish exiles stormed the Syrian Embassy in Belgium and the consulate in Geneva.
Fear of further violence sent Syrian officials rushing to meet with Kurdish leaders. For the moment, things are quiet.
Yet the rioting showed how volatile the Kurdish issue can be, especially as Kurds in Iraq win greater power and autonomy.
"The Kurdish minority in Syria has been emboldened by the success of the Kurds in Iraq," said Murhaf Jouejati, an expert on Syrian affairs at George Washington University. "One of the reasons Syria opposed the war in Iraq is that it feared the emergence of a Kurdish autonomous entity in northern Iraq, and that this would whet the appetite of the Kurds in Syria and Turkey" for autonomy.
Of Syria's 18 million people, about 10 percent are Kurds. Many complain of discrimination, but the situation is especially dire for the 250,000 or so Kurds who fled Turkish oppression decades ago. Considered illegal aliens, they are denied Syrian citizenship and cannot own property, attend public schools or hold government jobs.
Syrian President Bashar Assad, under fire from human rights groups, had been taking measures to integrate the Kurds into Syrian society, starting with a census to determine their actual numbers. The weekend violence could jeopardize that, Jouejati said.
"My fear is that the state would not want to continue immediately with these measures lest it be seen as bowing to pressure."
Since becoming president in 2000, Assad has also taken tentative steps to liberalize the economy, open the political process and repair relations with Israel and America.
But the Bush administration continues to criticize Syria for its support of anti-Israel groups and its pursuit of chemical and biological weapons. According to the BBC, America will "very soon" begin enforcing the Syrian Accountability Act, a tough set of sanctions passed by Congress last year.
Allas, of the Royal Institute, thinks Assad wants to move his country forward, but is "beginning to feel that no matter what (Syria) does, it can't do anything right."
"The Syrian Accountability Act was completely ignored, they
thought it wouldn't happen because it was too humiliating and too
one-sided and they were really taken by surprise," Allas said.
"It shows once again how Syrians are sometimes too concerned
about their own issues and not looking at new situations on the ground."
2. - One World - "Syria's Treatment of Kurds Sparks Concern":
WASHINGTON, D.C. / 17 March 2004 / by Jim Lobe
Amnesty International is expressing "serious concerns" about reports that least 20 people have been killed and hundreds of Syrian Kurds arrested by security forces since clashes broke out at a football match in the largely Kurdish town of Qamishli last Friday.
Unrest spread to several other northeastern cities where Kurdish demonstrators clashed with security forces and to Damascus and Aleppo where Kurdish students protested the deaths in the Kurdish region.
The clashes, the most serious anti-government incidents in almost 20 years, came amid growing pressure on the government of President Bashir Assad arising primarily from the U.S. occupation in neighboring Iraq.
The Bush administration has accused Syria of turning a blind eye to the infiltration of Islamist fighters into Iraq, as well as maintaining support for the Hizbollah movement in Lebanon, is set to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions on Damascus this week under the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act passed by Congress late last year.
Sponsors of the Act, as well as influential neo-conservatives in and around the Bush administration, have urged Washington to take stronger measures against Damascus, including actions designed to destabilize the regime, although the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have said Damascus has provided useful cooperation in fighting al Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups.
Like their cousins in Iraq, Iran, and Turkey, Syrian Kurds have long been at odds with the central government in Damascus which has often discriminated against them. Even today, some 150,000 Kurds in Syria--out of a total Kurdish population of 1.5-1.8 million--are denied Syrian nationality and civil rights, according to Amnesty.
The success of Iraqi Kurds in obtaining a large measure of autonomy under the country's new interim constitution has sparked concern in both Turkey and Syria about the restiveness of their own Kurdish populations. For much of the 20th century, Kurds sought self-determination for an independent Kurdistan that would claim significant amounts of territory from Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.
News reports said that the clashes in Qamishli began when supporters of a visiting Arab team, al-Fatwa, provoked fans from a predominantly Kurdish team, al-Jihad, by waving pictures of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein before the game. The London-based Kurdish Human Rights Project (KHRP) reported Monday that some of the Fatwa supporters carried guns and were backed by local security forces.
Police initially tried to disperse the crowds by shooting in the air, setting off a panic, in which some were shot and others, including at least three children, were killed in a stampede to escape the shooting. More than 150 others were injured.
After this incident, clashes between Kurds and security forces broke out in the northern towns Qamishli, al-Hassaka, Amouda, and Derik. Many government buildings and statues were attacked and burned, according to KHRP which reported that as many as 50 people died in the violence overnight.
The local governor sent in tanks and imposed a curfew in the towns, but five more were killed when police fired on a crowd of almost 10,000 who were carrying the bodies of ten victims through the streets of Qamishli Saturday, according to KHRP. Several people were also killed in demonstrations in Dayr al-Zur and Damascus, the group said.
Hundreds of men and boys as young as 14 years old were reported to have been detained in the Kurdish northeast, most of them taken from their homes. Amnesty said their families have been unable to determine their whereabouts.
"Those killed and those detained may have been targeted because of their Kurdish origin," Amnesty said. "Those in detention may be subjected to torture or otherwise ill-treated, given the fact that their whereabouts are still unknown."
A government-owned newspaper, 'Tishreen,' reported Tuesday that a committee had been set up to investigate the unrest and "severely punish the perpetrators and instigators of these crimes."
Amnesty called for an independent and impartial investigation of the rioting, the police response, and the detentions. "The Syrian authorities must make known to those concerned the whereabouts of the detainees to avoid any mistreatment or the generation of more violence," the London-based group said.
Peaceful demonstrations by Kurds reportedly took place in Qamishli and al-Hassaka four days before the Qamishli clashes. Amnesty said it had received reports that seven Syrian Kurds were arrested the following morning, adding to tensions in the region.
Several people were killed in clashes between Syrian authorities and Kurds in March 1986 during the spring festival of Newroz. In 1992, security forces carried out mass arrests after Kurds marked the 30th anniversary of the census which resulted in the deprivation of citizenship of tens of thousands of Kurds.
In 1995, the Syrian authorities banned the traditional Newroz celebrations
and arrested dozens of Kurds, according to Amnesty.
3. - KHRP - "Torture in Turkey: the ongoing practice of torture and ill-treatment":
18 March 2004
The passage of legal reforms aimed at improving human rights standards to meet EU accession requirements has failed to prevent the widespread and systematic deployment of torture and ill-treatment, according to a new book published by Kurdish Human Rights Project [1].
The book, ’Torture in Turkey: the Ongoing Practice of Torture and Ill-treatment’ assesses the achievements and failures of Turkish authorities in preventing the torture and ill-treatment of individuals in detention and police custody.
The perpetrators are usually law enforcement officials, gendarmerie and security forces. Torture methods used include rape, beatings, food deprivation, continual blindfolding, spraying with pressurised cold water and various methods of psychological torture and abuse. There has also been a marked increase in more sophisticated methods that do not leave visible marks on the body, including electric shocks, Palestinian hangings and falaka (beating on the soles of the feet).
The issue is likely to be of critical importance in December 2004, when Turkey’s EU accession bid is due to be reconsidered.
The book is written and edited by KHRP Executive Director Kerim Yildiz
and researcher Juliet McDermott. It includes a comprehensive assessment
of the status of torture in Turkey, including that used against women
and children. It also contains recommendations to the Turkish government,
EU and UN Commission on Human Rights of further constitutional amendments
which could bring Turkey into compliance with international human
rights standards.
4. - AFP - "New constitution needed before Turkey joins EU, body says":
17 March 2004
Turkey will probably have to draw up a new constitution to reflect
profound changes required for membership of the European Union, an
influential EU body said on Wednesday.
"A modern constitution may form the basis for the modernisation
of the Turkish state," said a report by the EU parliament's foreign
affairs committee said.
The report "considers the drafting of a new constitution a further
and probably necessary reflection of the very fundamental nature of
the changes required for EU membership."
Turkey has adopted a raft of significant reforms since 1999 -- among
them some taboo-breaking constitutional amendments -- and argues that
it has fulfilled the majority of criteria required to open membership
talks.
Brussels has said it needs to see the reforms properly implemented
before it sits down at the negotiating table.
The report said that any state wanting to join the EU must first satisfy
several criteria. It must in particular be able to ensure "stability
of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights
and respect for and protection of minorities."
The document said there was concern about the continuing influence
of the army in Turkey in "think tanks, businesses and funds,
which could prove to be an obstacle to the reform of the state."
In its report the committee also called on Ankara to ensure that bodies
supervising higher education in the country be controlled entirely
by civilians and not by the army.
Turkey has been an EU candidate since 1999, but is the only country
among 13 states not to have begun accession talks.
EU leaders are to decide next December whether the mainly Muslim but
strictly secular state has made enough progress in democratic reforms
to open membership negotiations.
5. - Reuters - "Kurds battle Syrian police":
At least eight people killed; Iraqi Kurds protest in Arbil at plight of Syrian Kurds
DAMASCUS / 18 March 2004
Syrian security forces fought with rioting Kurds in northern Syria as clashes spread to the nation's second-largest city. A Kurdish politicians and a witness said Wednesday at least five Kurds and three policemen were killed.
There was no immediate confirmation of Tuesday's violence from the
Syrian government, which has not issued any casualty figures. But
the latest fatalities bring to at least 24 the number of deaths --
17 Kurds, four Arabs and three officers -- in fighting between Kurds
and the police and members of Syria's Arab majority since Friday,
according to Kurdish groups and hospitals in Syria's northeast. More
than 100 were wounded.
Iraqi Kurds protest
Meanwhile in Arbil, about 5,000 Kurds marched in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil on Wednesday to protest at the treatment of Kurds in Syria, where more than 30 people have been reported killed in clashes since Friday.
Witnesses said the protesters, waving banners and Kurdish flags, headed for a U.N. office to demand that the United Nations and human rights groups stop what they called a Syrian clampdown on Kurds.
"We condemn the massacre and looting of property of Kurdish people in Syria," one banner read. "We demand that the Syrian president prevents attacks on the Kurds," said another.
Syria denies that ethnic tension is causing the trouble that erupted on Friday at a soccer stadium in the northeastern town of Kameshli, blaming politically motivated troublemakers.
Sources in Turkey said 11 people were killed in the province of al-Hassaka in fresh clashes on Monday and another seven were killed in Aleppo, but the reports were denied by a Syrian official. Syria did not issue any figures of its own.
Since a U.S.-led invasion toppled Iraq's Saddam Hussein last year, Syria and Turkey have voiced opposition to any moves to strengthen Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq, fearing it could ignite similar aspirations among their own Kurdish populations.
"No Kurds can keep quiet with what is happening to our brothers in Syria and Turkey," said Kurdistan Mukiriani, a female university lecturer who was among the protesters in Arbil.
Ghafour Makhmouri said he had joined the march to "condemn the aggression against our Kurdish brothers in Syria."
Turkey, Iran and Iraq also have substantial Kurdish minorities and
their governments have at times fought armed Kurdish guerrilla movements
seeking autonomy or independence.
Unrest raises concerns
The unrest, which erupted on Friday over a soccer match, has raised concern that the Kurds, whom the Syrian constitution does not recognize, have been inspired by political rise of the Kurds in neighboring Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein last year. Kurds make up about 1.5 million of Syria's 18.5 million people and live mostly in the underdeveloped provinces of Qamishli and Hasakah.
Ahmed Qassem of the Democratic Kurdish Party in Syria said from Aleppo, the country's second-largest city, that security forces opened fire Tuesday on hundreds of Kurds who were demonstrating in Ashrafya street to commemorate the anniversary of the Iraqi military's killing in 1988 of thousands of people in a poison gas attack on the Iraqi Kurdish town of Halabja.
Kurds resisted when police tried to disperse the crowds immediately after five minutes of silence to mark the anniversary, Qassem said. Police fired in the air. The demonstrators fought the police with knifes, sticks and stones. And the police began firing into the crowd, he said.
Qassem said two Kurds and three police officers were killed in the Tuesday riot in Aleppo, which is 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of the capital Damascus. A third Kurd died of his wounds Wednesday in the National Hospital in Aleppo, Qassem said by telephone. He named two of the dead Kurds as Orya Willo and Farida Rashid Sheikho.
A second riot in Afreen, 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Aleppo,
led to the death of two other Kurds, witness Othman Mohammed said
on the phone from the town. He named those killed in Afreen as Ghivara
Hamid and Jalal Jamal, adding they would be buried on Wednesday.
Afreen riot
The Afreen riot also began as a Kurdish demonstration to mark the Halabja gas attack, Qassem said.
Riots and spontaneous protests are extremely rare in Syria, where the ruling Baath party has little tolerance for dissent.
The state-run newspaper Al-Thawra published an editorial on Wednesday that blamed the violence on "intriguers" inspired by "foreign pressures."
A Kurdish politician in Qamishli, where the violence began, denied that the Kurds were driven by external pressure.
"We would never allow anybody to interfere in our internal affairs," said Faisal Youssef, who is an executive of the Progressive and Democratic Kurdish Party in Syria.
In Damascus, the Syrian Cabinet said after a Tuesday night meeting
that "mobs and opportunists exploited (the incident) to destroy
private and public properties," according to a statement carried
by the official Syrian Arab News Agency on Wednesday.
6. - Los Angeles Times - "Denktash going to pull out":
ANKARA, Turkey / March 18, 2004 / By Amberin Zaman
Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf R. Denktash said Wednesday that he was pulling out of next week's four-party talks on a United Nations plan to reunite the divided Mediterranean island because he didn't believe the negotiations would lead to a settlement.
Denktash and the Greek Cypriot leader, Tassos Papadopoulos, have been holding U.N.-mediated talks since February on ending the island's 3-decade-old division so it can join the European Union as a united nation on May 1. The outcome would have a decisive effect on Turkey's own bid to launch membership negotiations with the 15-member European bloc.
EU leaders have made it clear that they will not consider opening talks with the Ankara government unless it uses its influence with Denktash to work out a peace deal. They also have said they will allow the Greek-controlled south portion of the island to join the EU regardless of whether a solution is reached. That would deprive 200,000 Turkish Cypriots of the benefits of membership.
Pressure from EU leaders prompted Turkey's government to persuade Denktash to agree to resume talks on the basis of the latest U.N. plan that foresees reuniting the island under a loose confederation of semiautonomous Greek and Turkish states.
But Denktash, who has the backing of hawks within Turkey's powerful military, has long railed against the U.N. plan. He says some of its provisions, notably ones that allow Greek Cypriot refugees to reclaim property in the Turkish north, will again fuel communal clashes. He is threatening to campaign against the plan, which is set to be put to a referendum on both sides of the island at the end of April.
"This is the nightmare scenario for the Turkish government," said an EU diplomat in Ankara, who requested anonymity. "Without Denktash on board, any deal will be hard to sell both in Turkey and to the Turkish Cypriots, especially if some [Turkish] generals continue to publicly take his side."
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sought to play down Denktash's withdrawal, saying he did not regard it as important. "The talks will continue," he said.
Turkish and Greek Cypriots and representatives of Turkey and Greece are set to meet March 23 in the luxury Buergenstock resort, overlooking Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, to iron out remaining differences before the planned referendum.
A major sticking point, however, is the Greek Cypriot demand that EU legislation take precedence over any deal that is reached. The Turkish side fears that this would enable the island's Greek Cypriot majority to freely circulate and work in the Turkish sector, which would in turn dilute Turkish influence.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded the
north of the island in response to an attempted coup by Greek Cypriot
nationalists to join the island to Greece. About 30,000 Turkish troops
remain on the island.