Kurdish activists are still calling for an investigation of Soran Mama Hama’s death, which was detailed in July by the Committee to Protect Journalists:
Mama Hama, 23, a reporter with the Sulaymania-based Livin magazine, had received threatening messages before the slaying, local journalists told CPJ today. Mama Hama had written articles critical of local authorities, those [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) recommends that engagement with Syria should include human rights:
Western countries looking to increase engagement with Syria should know that Syrian authorities continue to arrest, try, and harass political and human rights activists, Human Rights Watch said today. In May 2008, Syrian authorities detained a political writer, began the trial of two [...]
Reuters reports from Beirut:
Syrian authorities said on Sunday they had restored order at a military jail near Damascus after a riot, but dissidents said the protest was not over and that dozens of prisoners had been killed.
The riot broke out on Saturday at Sidnaya prison, a huge complex 30 km (19 miles) northwest of the [...]
Report by Owen Bowcott from the Guardian UK:
Families seek redress for Turkish incursions
Raids on Kurds blamed for deaths and damage in Iraq
British lawyers take cases to human rights court
British lawyers are taking Turkey to the European court of human rights in pursuit of compensation for deaths and damage allegedly inflicted by repeated bombardments of northern [...]
Kurdish Media reports on recent statements from members of Iraqi Parliament:
London (KurdishMedia.com) 05 June 2008: As the result of the Turkish and Iranian bombardments for the last two years, 450 southern Kurdish families have been displaced, two MP’s of the Kurdistan bloc in the Iraqi Assembly stated in a press conference in Baghdad. It was [...]
From the Agence France-Presse (AFP):
SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq — Iranian shelling of five villages in Iraqi Kurdistan close to the border wounded at least two civilians Wednesday, a security official told AFP.
The pre-dawn bombardment of the villages near the town of Sayed Sadiq lasted two hours, said General Jabari Yawar, a spokesman for the peshmerga, the [...]
Alliance for Kurdish Rights (AKR) is concerned for the well-being and safety of civilians in the Kurdistan Federal Region in Iraq after months of heavy bombardments by the Turkish and Iranian militaries. On May 4th, 2008, the LA Times reported the destruction of another border village town, Rezga, as a result of cross-border airstrikes and [...]
The authorities continued to suppress dissent. Journalists, writers, scholars, and women’s rights and community activists were subject to arbitrary arrest, travel bans, closure of their NGOs and harassment. Armed opposition, mainly by Kurdish and Baluchi groups, continued, as did state repression of Iran’s minority communities. Discrimination against women remained entrenched in law and practice. Torture [...]
The state of emergency, in force since 1963, continued to give security forces sweeping powers of arrest and detention. Freedom of expression and association were severely restricted. Hundreds of people were arrested and hundreds of others remained imprisoned for political reasons, including prisoners of conscience and others sentenced after unfair trials. Human rights defenders were [...]
In the wake of increased political uncertainty and army interventions, nationalist sentiment and violence increased. Freedom of expression continued to be restricted. Allegations of torture and other ill-treatment and the use of excessive force by law enforcement officials persisted. Prosecutions for violations of human rights were ineffective and insufficient, and fair trial concerns persisted. The [...]
