Detainees recently on hunger strike were tortured and forced to eat during their protest

The Executive Committee of the Democratic Union Party – PYD reports that detainees who were recently on hunger strike in Adra Prison, Damascus, Syria were tortured and forced to eat during their protest.

The hunger strike was launched on 30 October 2009 in support of the following aims:

• they receive a fair trial
• their isolation ends
• they are allowed to leave the prison yard
• they are granted visits from parents, and relatives
• and they have access to the media, including radio and television bulletins to give them the same conditions as are available to criminal prisoners.

Visits that had been arranged for the tenth day of the hunger strike were cancelled by the prison – we now know that the detainees were by that time showing signs of torture. They had each been placed in a small room so that they were isolated from each other and they were forced to eat. The detainee who represented the hunger strikers in negotiations with the authorities was informed that their demands would be considered, however the undertakings given by the authorities were not honoured.

Some of the detainees who had not seen their families since they were detained were promised that they could have visits in the Colonel’s office, but the visits were curtailed when Kurdish language was spoken or they talked of what had happened.

There are detainees whose health is deteriorating and this is exacerbated by the torture they have experienced and the effects of being on hunger strike. There is particular concern for:

• Mohammed Habash Rasho Bakr who was  sentenced to 7 years,
• Nuri Mustafa Hussein, who was sentenced to 6 years,
• and Salah Mustafa Mesto who was also sentenced to 6 years.

The Executive Committee of Democratic Union Party – PYD commits to the absolute line of peaceful resistance, and calls on the Red Cross to intervene as a matter of urgency to inspect the health of these political activist detainees and to provide them with appropriate medical treatment.

The Executive Committee of the Democratic Union Party – PYD calls also for international condemnation of the practices of the Syrian authorities in regard to their treatment of prisoners and the conditions in which they are kept. We call for an escalation in pressure applied on the Syrian Government to release political prisoners, to abolish martial law, and to lift the State of Emergency. We also call for the Syrian Constitution to be changed so that basic rights for Kurdish people are clearly identified, for example the use of our Kurdish language and expressions of our culture.

Executive Committee of the Democratic Union Party – PYD

25 December 2009