Once again 28 Kurds arrested arbitrarily

Several calls for help have reached the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) from Syria. It is reported that 28 Kurds were arrested by the Syrian secret service for no clear reason at the beginning of July in the town of Qamishli in the north-east of the country. "Although he has already been long dead Muhammad Saleh Darwish was also to have been arrested" , reported in indignation a representative of the Kurdish opposition parties, Near-east correspondent, Kamal Sido, on Tuesday. Concrete charges have not been made against these men.

"In the shadow of the highly explosive situation in the Near-east the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is continuing his policy of suppressing the Kurds in his country", criticised Sido and announced that the EU office in Syria would be asked to step in to help these Kurdish prisoners, as well as the 75 Kurds who were already arrested in Aleppo on 20th June. Their relatives have as yet no news as to their fate.

As long as al-Assad continues his policy of suppressing the Kurdish ethnic group Germany should not support Syria´s attempts to strike an agreement of association with the EU, said Sido.

In Syria the number of Kurds is estimated at two million. They make up the second largest ethnic group in the country after the Arabs. Some 200,000 Kurds have been refused Syrian citizenship. Kurdish newspapers and other media are forbidden in Syria. The Kurdish language is not allowed at school.