Three Kurdish men arrested for organising poetry festival in Syria
According to Kurdish Organization for Defending Human Rights and Public Freedoms in Syria – DAD, Human Rights Organization in Syria – MAF and Kurdish Committee for Human Rights in Syria – al-Rased, two Kurdish poets and the owner of a house have been arrested against the background of organising a poetry festival. They were brought before the individual military judge in Qamishli on 21 December 2010:
- Omar Abdi Ismail (poet).
- Abdul Samad Hussain Mahmoud (poet).
- Ahmed Fattah Ismail (homeowner). Read more
Waleda Sheikhmous Boti case adjourned
According to Syrian Committee for Human Rights – MAD, Kurdish Organization for Defending Human Rights and Public Freedoms in Syria – DAD, and Kurdish Committee for Human Rights in Syria – al-Rased, on 20 December 2010 the individual military judge in Qamishli postponed the trial of Waleda Sheikhmous Boti, born 1967, from Hassaka and a stateless Kurdish woman. She has been in detention for two months and she was released to return for the hearing on 26 December 2010 when the defence would put her case.
She was detained under customary law after being summoned by political security in Hassakeh, charged with belonging to the women’s banned political organization – Sittar Federation Women’s organisation.
Political Security forces arrest another Kurd in Syria
According to Kurdish Organization for Defending Human Rights and Public Freedoms in Syria – DAD, and Kurdish Committee for Human Rights in Syria – al-Rased, political security forces in Deyrik in Hasakah province arrested Yusuf Haji Yusuf on Thursday, 16 December 2010. It is believed that the reason for his arrest comes against the backdrop of his interest in public affairs, and at the time of writing he continues to be isolated from the outside world and his whereabouts are unknown. Read more
Chair of Human Rights organisation taken to Court in Syria
Joint statement – the facts of a disciplinary hearing against the known human rights activist and lawyer, Radif Mustafa, held by the Council of the Bar Association Aleppo branch:
The Council of the Bar Association held a disciplinary meeting in Aleppo on 19 December 2010 to interrogate the known human rights activist and colleague Radif Mustafa, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kurdish Committee for Human Rights in Syria al-Rased. This is disciplinary case number 34 of 2010, and it was decided to take disciplinary proceedings against him. Read more
Earth Is Parched Where Syrian Farms Thrived
AR RAQQAH, Syria — The farmlands spreading north and east of this Euphrates River town were once the breadbasket of the region, a vast expanse of golden wheat fields and bucolic sheep herds. Refugees have left their farmlands and are living in tents in Ar Raqqah, Syria, because of a drought.
Now, after four consecutive years of drought, this heartland of the Fertile Crescent — including much of neighboring Iraq — appears to be turning barren, climate scientists say. Ancient irrigation systems have collapsed, underground water sources have run dry and hundreds of villages have been abandoned as farmlands turn to cracked desert and grazing animals die off. Sandstorms have become far more common, and vast tent cities of dispossessed farmers and their families have risen up around the larger towns and cities of Syria and Iraq. Read more
Mahmoud Shekho – death of 42nd Kurdish conscript killed in the Syrian army
According to Media Institute of Western Kurdistan Society and Kurdish Organization for Defending Human Rights and Public Freedoms in Syria – DAD, the family of a military conscript Mahmoud Shekho who had served in one of the military units of the Syrian army in the province of Latakia, received the body of their son on Saturday 9 October 2010. According to the military authorities he committed suicide. The source of this news confirmed that his body showed evidence of having been shot fourteen times. He was buried the same day in his village of Tel Hassal in the province of Aleppo. Read more
Fifty Kurdish activists come before the Syrian Judge
Syrian Committee for Human Rights – MAD reports that the following people have been summoned to court for trial in the case no. 7233 for 2010, before a first military judge in Aleppo, on 14 October 2010. Read more
An urgent apeal to the public opinion about the detainee Tahsein Khairi Mamo
To Gentlemen officials:
Amnesty International.
And Human Rights Watch.
Greetings:
We would like to inform you that the detainee Tahsein Khairi Mamo, who was arrested in the city of Aleppo – Al-Sheikh Maksoud – with four others of his comrades Nazmi Mohamed Hanan, Dilkash Shamo Mamo, Ahmed Khalil Darwish, Yasha Khaled Qadir, who are all members of our party – the Kurdish Yekiti Party in Syria – were taken by military intelligence after they broke into Yasha Khaled’s house on 29 January 2007, is still missing. His fate has been unknown over the last two years in spite of his parents’ repeated and continued attempts in asking the related authorities to get information about his fate, and they did not receive any answers until now. They are afraid that he might have been killed under torture, and all the information confirms that he is no longer alive and that the authorities are keeping silent about it. Read more
Another arrest of a Kurdish man in Syria
Syrian Committee for Human Rights – MAD and Kurdish Organization for Defending Human Rights and Public Freedoms in Syria – DAD report that Hassan Abdel-Kader Nassan was arrested by Security Services in the province of Aleppo, on 27 September 2010. Hassan Abdel-Kader Nassan, born in 1979, and from Afrin is isolated from the outside world, and there is no information about where he is, why he was arrested or the reason for his detention. Read more
Forcibly deported Kurd from Denmark probably jailed and tortured
On Wednesday 22 September 2010, Asylret informed that an asylum seeker would be forcibly deported to Syria.
Adnan Ibrahim was deported to Syria after 18 months in Denmark where two-thirds of his family lives and where the rest had gone underground; for example a father who – rightly – feared a forced deportation to Syria. Read more
