Group Alleges Kurdish Arrests in Syria

DAMASCUS, Syria - Syrian authorities have arrested more than 1,000 Kurds in a continuing campaign
against the Kurdish minority, a Syrian human rights group claimed Monday.

It was the second report in less than a week of an alleged clampdown on Kurds here since last
month’s clashes in the northeast between Syrian security forces and Kurdish rioters in which 25 people
were killed and more than 100 wounded.

In a statement faxed to foreign news agencies in Damascus, Aktham Naisse, the chairman of the
Committees for the Defense of Democratic Liberties and Human Rights in Syria, said "arbitrary daily
arrests" were ongoing against Kurdish women and men. More than 1,000 Kurds have been arrested and
many of them were tortured, he said.

Syrian officials could not be reached for comment.

Faisal al-Youssef, a member of the political bureau of the Kurdish Democratic Party, said daily
arrests of Kurds have been conducted since last month.

On April 7, the Kurdish Yekiti Party claimed that Syrians authorities conducted raids in
northeastern Syria and arrested dozens of Kurds.

The March clashes between Kurds and Syrian police began with a deadly stampede and brawl between
supporters of rival Arab and Kurdish soccer teams before a match in the town of Qamishli. The next
day, Kurds rioted during a funeral for the victims, and the violence spread to nearby areas.

In his statement, Naisse called for an immediate halt to "terrorist and illegal practices" against
the Kurds, warning that such practices would "further complicate the situation and increase
unrest" among Syria’s various ethnic groups.

He said the introduction of swift democratic reforms would help deal fairly with the issue of the
Kurds’ rights in Syria.

Kurds - about 1.5 million of Syria’s 18.5 million people - live mostly in the underdeveloped
northern provinces of Qamishli and Hasakah and occasionally complain of being marginalized in Syria.

The March violence, which gave rise to Kurdish protests in several European cities, poses a
challenge to President Bashar Assad, whose government already faces calls to improve human rights and
threatened U.S. sanctions for alleged support for terrorism.

The riots also raised concerns that long-ignored minority Kurds, emboldened by a bigger role for
fellow Kurds in neighboring Iraq (news - web sites) after the ouster of Saddam Hussein (news - web
sites), might push for greater recognition in Syria.