Deported Kurd arrested and disappeared -- Schäuble bears some of the responsibility!

Following the disappearance without a trace of a Kurd who was deported from Germany to Syria and who was arrested on arrival, the Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV) in Göttingen has raised serious charges against the German Minister of the Interior, Wolfgang Schäuble. "In spite of urgent warnings of the torturing state Syria Schäuble set his signature under a return agreement with the dictatorial regime and so decided over the fate of refugees seeking protection like that of Khalid Kanjo”, criticised the STP chair, Tilman Zülch. "How can it happen that a German Minister of the Interior gives his hand to a dictator who allows dissenters to be cruelly tortured? We demand the immediate suspension of the agreement!”

"We are very much concerned about the health and life of this Kurd, who was deported on 1st September 2009 although he many times tried to convince the authorities that he would be threatened with torture if he returned to Syria”, said the human rights expert. "We must take it for granted that Kanjo is in custody, has been tortured for a month and is in extreme danger. We call urgently on the German Minister of the Interior to speak out for the deported man to be released. Failing this, he must face the charge that his hands are stained with blood.”

Khalid Kanjo came as a political refugee to Germany in 2002. He lived in the Bielefeld area. It was possible to deport him in accordance with the German-Syrian agreement which Schäuble signed on 14th July 2008, although the regime is notorious for its dreadful methods of torture. It is especially political prisoners who are the victims of cruel handling by the security forces in the prisons. The return agreement came into force on 1st January 2009.

There are living in Germany some 7,000 refugees from Syria, most of whom belong to discriminated minorities like the Kurds, the Yezidi and the Christian Assyrian Aramaeans. Although most of them have been living in Germany for seven or more years some have already received notice to leave the country. The first deportations are now being carried out. The situation of the approximately two million Kurds in Syria is dismal. Their language and culture are forbidden. About 300,000 Kurds are counted as "foreigners” or "non-registered persons”. They themselves or their forebears were simply disenfranchised in the framework of an Arabicisation programme, which began at the beginning of the 1960s. Those affected only receive special passes and they can neither vote nor take up any government offices.

Tilman Zülch can be reached to answer questions at politik@gfbv.de