HUMAN RIGHTS: UN Committee Expresses Concern for Kurds

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Mar 10 1999 (IPS) - The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination declared its concern Wednesday over the “suppression of the fundamental rights and the identity of the Kurds as a distinct people.”

In its declaration, the Committee stated that “wherever they live, they should be able to lead their lives in dignity, to preserve their culture and to enjoy wherever appropiate a high degree of autonomy.”

The Committee, made up of 18 independent experts, has the mission of overseeing implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Since the Kurdish issue shot back into world headlines with the Feb 15 arrest of independence leader Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya, UN agencies have kept silent on the question.

UN spokespersons have carefully avoided references to the “Kurdish problem,” even though UN offices in Geneva were occupied for two days by a group of sympathisers protesting Ocalan’s arrest.

Kenyan authorities handed Ocalan over to Turkish security agents, and he is now awaiting trial, and a possible death sentence, in Imrali prison in Turkey.

The Committee appealed “to the competent organs of the United Nations and to all authorities and organisations working for peace, justice and human rights, to deploy all necessary efforts in order to achieve peaceful solutions which do justice to the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the Kurdish people.”

The declaration did not refer, however, to the United Nations’ silence on the Ocalan case.

Committee chairman Mahmoud Aboul-Nasr said it fell under the competence of the members to discuss and comprehend all problems of racial discrimination anywhere in the world.

Aboul-Nasr, a jurist from Egypt, told IPS that the Committee’s statement was not based on any previous investigation.

He described the Kurdish issue as “huge news,” and said it was enough to read the newspapers, listen to the radio or watch TV to understand that it was a very serious problem.

The members of the committee were “moved” by the case, and decided to discuss it, said Aboul-Nasr. Although “some of us” wanted a more severe and explicit declaration, a compromise solution was found and unanimously approved, he said.

Aboul-Nasr denied that the declaration was in any way related to the fact that the Committee discussed the situation of racial discrimination in Syria on Wednesday.

Syrian Ambassador Taher Al-Hussami denied the existence of a “Kurdish problem” in his country, where some 80,000 members of that community reside.

Syria shares a border with Turkey and Iraq, in a region where two-thirds of the world’s nearly 20 million Kurds live. Some 10 million Kurds live in Turkey, six million in Iran, and a similar number in Iraq, while a few thousand reside in Armenia.

Al-Hussami told the Committee that some of the Kurds living in Syria had sneaked into the country while fleeing persecution in neighbouring countries. But they continued to live illegally in Syria, “because our nationality is very valuable, and is not conceded to infiltrators.”

But despite their condition as illegal immigrants, Kurds are allowed to travel abroad for reasons of health or study, as long as they obtain authorisation by Syria’s Interior Ministry, he added.

Kurdish women can marry Syrian men and become citizens. But marriages between Syrian women and Kurdish men are prohibited. “This is a right that we reserve to protect the nationality of our women,” said Al-Hussami.

The Committee declared that it was “profoundly alarmed about widespread and systematic violations of human rights inflicted on people because of their ethnic or national origin.

“Ethnic antagonisms, especially when mixed with political opposition, give rise to many forms of violent conflict, including terrorist actions and military operations.

“In many parts of the world they cause immense suffering, including the loss of many lives, the destruction of cultural heritage and the massive displacement of populations,” the statement added.

The non-governmental Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT), financed by private entities and Nordic governments, announced this week in Geneva that it had begun actions with other international groups to pressure the Turkish government on Ocalan’s situation.

Barbara Bernath, in charge of APT’s European programme, said her group had asked Turkish authorities to allow Ocalan to receive visitors.

So far, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture was the only international body allowed to visit Ocalan in Imrali prison. Representatives of the group met with him in private during a four-hour visit last week, said Bernath.

The APT pointed out that on previous visits to Turkey, the European Committee had clearly established that torture was systematically used in that country.

Torture is not only used in the case of political prisoners, but with those arrested for common crimes as well, said Bernath.

However, the situation in Turkey’s prisons is not as bad as in police stations there, she added. According to Bernath, the problem in Turkey is that “there is no political will for change.”