HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH ON PYD-ROJAVA

[The PYD] continues to make attempts to have opposition parties or other parties participate in the government, but the largest opposition party is not yet doing that.

We were also looking at attacks on members of opposition parties, because we had recent reports of political detainees being held in the cantons. We interviewed the head of (one opposition) office and he said he’d been “disappeared” for a year and a half ad they believed the PYD was responsible for his disappearance. There are other concerns that there have been attempts to silence other opposition voices, including the media. Local Kurdish journalists talked about “red lines” they could not cross [in reporting], like the use of child soldiers by the military arm.

By Lama Fakih / Human Rights Watch