MESOP FOCUS : TORTURE & CORRUPTION IN SOUTH KURDISTAN !?

Kurdistan Region Denies US Report on Torture, Abuses

Rudaw – 2014-03-20 – ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has responded to a US report on human rights in the autonomous Iraqi enclave, denying allegations of torture and pointing to laws that protect detainees, religious minorities and journalists. Dindar Zebari, head of the KRG’s High Committee to Follow-up on International Reports, dismissed allegations of torture in Kurdistan, cited in the 2013 annual rights report on Iraq by the US Department of State.

“If there have been any cases of torture (in Kurdistan) it has been committed by individuals outside of the law and they have been penalized for their actions,” Zebari said in a statement.

The US report said that local and international human rights organizations, as well as government officials, documented credible cases of torture and abuse in the Ministry of Interior and to a lesser extent in the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Defense and KRG detention facilities, including facilities that held women.

Zebari noted that the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and a UN Rights Report had cited visits to 53 detention centers in the Kurdistan Region, and interviewed nearly 400 detainees, comprising men, women and children, during the first six months of 2013.

“This is a sign that the Kurdistan Regional Government welcomes international organizations to witness the conditions of the detainees,” said Zebari. He also said that Kurdistan has increased the number of judges to 40 in 2013, in order to deal with the problem of suspects held without charge for extended periods. Commenting on ethnic and religious minorities in the Kurdistan Region and Kurdish areas outside of the KRG administration, Zebari said that: “Peaceful coexistence exists in all segments of the Kurdistan Region, which has become a safe haven for all nationalities in Iraq, including those fleeing from the south and center of Iraq due to terrorism and security issues.”

He noted there are several schools in Arabic, Turkmen and Syriac in the three-province Kurdistan Region, as well as places of teaching for the Yezidi religious minority.

“In the Kurdistan Region, the minorities are not obligated to receive their education in the Kurdish language, and no one has been arrested in the political sphere on the grounds of their ethnic background. According to our laws in the Kurdistan Region, all citizens are treated equally without any exceptions,” he said.

According to the US report, minority groups reported threats and attacks targeting their communities in areas where the KRG had effective control, and the Yezidi community said their rights were not protected. Regarding the treatment of journalists, Zebari said, “There is already a law in place (since 2007) which protects the rights of journalists, and violence in 2013 has decreased compared to the preceding year according to the committee protecting journalists in the Kurdistan Region.”

“In 2012, there were 63 registered complaints by journalists, a figure reduced to 47 in 2013. To further protect the journalists in the Region, the KRG Ministry of Interior in cooperation with the Journalists Syndicate has formed a committee to follow up those cases involving aggression against journalists,” he added.

He stated that the presence of more than 800 media outlets and over 7,000 syndicated journalists in the Kurdistan Region demonstrates the enclave’s open media climate. “However, there have been instances when journalists have gone beyond their profession, which has threatened the Kurdistan Region’s security atmosphere,” he said. The US Department of State report said that KRG authorities continued to try, convict and imprison journalists under penal law, despite a 2008 media freedom law that decriminalizes publication-related offences. Last December, Kawa Garmiyani, the 32-year-old editor-in-chief of Rayalla magazine, was gunned down by unknown gunmen in front of his house. He had been an outspoken critic of local officials in his town and had accused them of “corruption with impunity.”

Zebari also noted there were several laws dealing with protesters and their rights.

But the US report said that on the last anniversary of demonstrations in 2011 in which 12 persons died and 47 were injured, KRG authorities deployed security forces throughout Sulaimani, who allegedly beat and arrested several journalists and activists. The US report noted that the two main Kurdish political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (KDP), have their own security wings. Concerning the formation of security agencies in Kurdistan, Zebari said that “all the security agencies fall under the umbrella of the Kurdistan Region Security Agency.”