Kurdish Unrest Spreads in Syria; Toll Is Put at 15

[Whoa_Nelly]

AMASCUS, Syria, March 13 — Unrest set off by Kurdish demonstrators demanding minority rights spread across northeastern Syria on Saturday, with Kurdish leaders saying up to 15 people were killed and scores wounded over two days as the riot police put down the rare protests with gunfire.

The unrest spread to Damascus, where several hundred riot officers wearing helmets and bearing plastic shields were stationed around Damascus University and in a predominately Kurdish suburb. Students and Kurdish residents of the suburb had staged sit-ins to protest events in the north, human rights activists said.

<snip>
The 11 main Syrian human rights and other civic organizations issued a joint statement on Saturday calling on the government to end the unrest through dialogue and to increase rights for Kurds through government action rather than violence. It said the security forces should be held accountable for opening fire on unarmed demonstrators.

"This tragic situation comes under a state of political and social inflammation in the country, due to the absence of democratic life and public freedoms, including the disregard of the rights of Kurds," said the small but vocal groups said in the statement.

more...
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/14/international/middleeast/14SYRI.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[fearnobush]

2. Now we have to free the Kurds in Syria.

Syria is part 2 in the Bushco plan of religious Revelations. Expect talk of Armageddon shorty after we invade and take over Syria.

[Name removed]

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[Whoa_Nelly]

4. These people obviously don't understand the PNAC puppet named *

From the article:
Some soccer fans began waiving a Kurdish flag and held aloft signs blessing President Bush, while chanting "We will sacrifice our lives for Bush,"

[Name removed]

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[Whoa_Nelly]

6. They should have a choice of their own now

and if that includes embracing democracy as the tenet for their new government, then more power to them. To embrace Bush seems to be a misnomer for democracy. To embrace Bush as a leader and light for their brave new world is being uninformed.

BTW: Welcome to DU, Grand Vizier! :hi:

[Name removed]

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[daleo]

8. Story #4 in two days with an anti-Syria angle, PNAC is on the move

1 - Saddam's sons went to Syria for a while.
2 - U.S. Congress to put sanctions into place soon.
3 - Syria did the Lockerbie bombing.
4 - Now, freedom for Syrian Kurds.

Leaving aside the merits of any of these individual stories, there does seem to be a media full-court press to whip up the public against Syria. It looks like Bush/PNAC are putting in plans for a war with Syria, probably as a pre-election October surprise. The meeting with Blair coming up may well be connected.

[Kool Kitty]

10. All you said sounds feasible.

Looks like to spin machine is spinning madly. And off to Syria we will probably go. Sad, sad, sad.

[slor]

9. Wow...

the * administration really "stabilized" the Middle East eh?

[xchrom]

11. the u.s., france, england, germany, and

the u.n. had better get used to the idea of kurdish unrest without a kurdish homeland.
in the meantime stuff like this offers bushco and pnac to line up perfectly. war in syria, which could indeed come with bushco around, might be used to shut-up official democratic critics. easier then to tell them not to critisize in a time of war.