We demand better living conditions for Mr. Abdullah Ocalan – sign the petition

To:  Amnesty international & European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, CPT

The Turkish state and the government has long promised to the European Court and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, CPT, to change the brutal isolating conditions that has been held towards the Kurdish PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan during eleven years on the prison island of Imrali in the sea of Marmara in Turkey. This gave us hope that the isolation would be removed and that Ocalan’s right to life and his human rights would be respected. According to reports from both the CPT and the European Court, the condition Ocalan lives in is a clear violation of all international laws regarding the respect of a prisoner, his human rights and human dignity are therefore not reasonable. This fact threatens both his mental and physical health. That Ocalan’s physical and mental health has significantly deteriorated by his confinement on Imrali and the conditions he is held captive in, is also witnessed by his relatives and his lawyers. It has long been said by the Turkish government that the conditions Ocalan has lived in during the recent ten years should change. The actual result of this change occurred by an emergency report that Ocalan himself, his lawyers and relatives have published for the national and the international community.

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Support prisoners in Syria – suggested letter to Amnesty International

Media allowed to use Kurdish language but still forbidden to discuss Kurdish issues freely

Reporters Without Borders hails the lifting of the last restrictions on the use of the Kurdish language by the Turkish news media. “This is an important and symbolically-charged step but its impact will be very limited as long as the media cannot tackle Kurdish issues without risking prosecution,” the press freedom organisation said.

The government gazette published a directive on 13 November indefinitely lifting all remaining restrictions on the broadcast media’s use of minority languages. Use of Kurdish had been allowed in the print media and the national public TV station TRT 6 since January 2004, but privately-owned radio stations were limited to five hours of Kurdish programming a week while privately-owned TV stations were limited to four hours. Read more

Pro-Kurdish DTP also target for armed forces according to letter – SKS

“Another document suggested that a book titled “Dersim 1937,” authored by Barbaros Baykara, be read by all TSK officers. The book mentions the bloody suppression of a rebellion in Tunceli (then known as Dersim) in 1937 and 1938…”

Today’s Zaman
19.11.2009

A military officer’s letter and documents in a CD sent recently to civilian prosecutors showed that the armed forces viewed the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) as a “dangerous” target and wanted to deter people from supporting the party through threats. Read more

YASA report – October 2009

Another Syrian-Kurdish recruit dead

The family of the recruit Sadik Hossein Mousa born October 12th, 2009 was informed about the death of their son according to the Syrian Human Rights Organization MAF. Sadik Hossein Mousa was completing his military service in the Syrian army. The Syrian authorities declared that the recruit died in a traffic accident outside of the military service. Read more

Kurds come together to support the continuing hunger strike by prisoners in Syria – update.

Kurdish political prisoners in Adra Prison and Sednaya Military Prison, Damascus, Syria continue a hunger strike that they began on 30 October 2009 to protest about the conditions under which they are being detained. They are striking for:
• a fair trial
• an end to solitary detention in prison
• to be allowed to leave the prison yard
• to receive visits from parents, and relatives
• and to have access to the media, including radio and television bulletins to give them the same conditions as are available to criminal prisoners.
For a full report: http://supportkurds.org/news/hunger-strike-amongst-kurdish-political-prisoners-in-syria

The families of the hunger strikers in the prison are outside the prison waiting to see the men, but they are not allowed access to them. According to MAD, five of the hunger striking prisoners were expected in Court on 17 November 2009 but were not produced because of the hunger strike. Their cases were adjourned to 12 December 2009. Read more

Candles and protests for Ehsan

Light a candle for Ehsan on Friday: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=202246368803&ref=mf

Information from Facebook for those in UK:

We are holding a memorial service for the martyr of freedom “Ehsan Fattahian” at Bradford Resources Community Centre in Bradford on the 27th of November starting at 6:00pm. Please come and join us, everybody is welcome.

Iran: Unrest following Ehsan Fattahian’s Execution

Human Rights Activists in Iran report that following Ehsan Fattahian’s execution, a peaceful demonstration was held in Sanandaj. During the rally, the people chanted slogans such as “Stop Executions”, “Yes to Free Life, No to Execution”. The demonstrators were met with anti-riot forces that dispersed the protesters using batons. Several protesters were injured and ten were arrested. The demonstrators were turned over by the police to the Sanandaj Intelligence Office.

At the same time, prisoners in Sanandaj Central Prison where Ehsan was executed, continued their hunger strike, which began following Ehsan’s transfer to solitary confinement ahead of his execution. The warden of the prison visited the political prisoner’s ward and threatened the prisoners. He threatened Habibollah Latifi, a Kurdish activist on death row, to implement the sentence soon. Following Ehsan’s execution political prisoners in Central Orumieh Prison began a three-day hunger strike. They demanded an end to the executions of Kurdish political prisoners and an improvement in their rights.

Family arrested following their return from Kurdistan – Iraq

According to the Kurdish human rights organisation – Defense of Human Rights and Public Freedoms in Syria [DAD], on 17 November 2009 Syrian Intelligence Security arrested Berivan Faroukh Mohammed who is the mother of a baby, and Salim Aziz.

This family returned from a journey in Kurdistan – Iraq on 18 October 2009, and were detained at the airport for some time.  Their passports were held by the Department of Immigration and Passports in Damascus, and they were then called to interview a number of times.

There is a lot of concern about this family. Read more

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL has made a public statement about the imprisonment of three Kurdish minority rights activists jailed in Syria

Amnesty International condemns the prison terms imposed yesterday on three members of Syria’s Kurdish minority convicted of “weakening national sentiment” and “inciting sectarian or racial strife or provoking conflict” on account of their legitimate exercise of freedom of expression and association.

Amnesty International considers them prisoners of conscience and is calling for their immediate and unconditional release.

Yesterday, the Damascus Criminal Court imposed three year prison sentences on Sa’dun Sheikhu, Mohammad Sa’id ‘Omar and Mustafa Jum’ah, all leading members of the Azadi (Freedom) Party, which advocates an end to discrimination against the Kurdish minority. The three were convicted of “weakening nationalist sentiment” and “inciting sectarian or racial strife or provoking conflict between sects and various members of the nation.” They denied the charges, which are based on vaguely worded provisions of the Syrian Penal Code that have often been used to penalize Kurdish minority activists and human rights defenders. The charges arise from their circulation of an Azadi party newspaper which criticized continuing discrimination against Kurds, who are estimated to number between one and a half and two million and to comprise around 10 per cent of Syria’s population.

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Letter to UN Secretary General regarding Kurds in Syria

Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General

United Nations

1st Ave & E 44th St

New York, NY 10017

November 12, 2009

Honorable Ban Ki-moon:

In the wake of the Sykes-Picot Treaty in 1918, and the subsequent division of Kurdistan among Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, the people of Kurdistan experienced the most unprecedented atrocities against them in the modern history. Each respective nation used all the means in its disposal to assimilate the Kurds into its own national melting pot. When the Kurds resisted the repressive policies and strived to protect their national identity they were physically and culturally subjected to the policy of annihilation. Three cultures have been imposed upon the Kurds and their native culture has become taboo for them to practice-punishable by imprisonment or death.  Read more

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