AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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FACTS OF THE CASE:

At the end of March 2004, Amnesty International reported that agricultural engineer and Kurdish activist Khalil Sulayman was released from prison in mid-September 2003 and all charges against him were dropped in January 2004. Khalil Sulayman was arrested by military intelligence personnel on 30 August 2003 from his workplace at the Department of Agriculture in the village of Tell al-Dhaman, in the Governate of Aleppo. He was not formally charged at the time of his arrest and was held incommunicado in Damascus until December 2003.

According to reports, Khalil Sulayman was tried before a military court in December 2003 on charges of "inciting racial hatred." He was reportedly arrested for organizing a social event of students at which people sang Kurdish songs. There is concern that his arrest was part of ongoing repression of Syrian Kurdish activists by the Syrian authorities. Khalil Sulayman is an activist on Kurdish issues and was nominated as an independent candidate in the 1994 parliamentary elections. He was then reportedly subjected to harassment and was transferred to a new place of employment 240 kilometers from his home.

Kurds make up approximately ten percent of the total population of 13.8 million people in Syria; they are the largest non-Arab ethnic minority in Syria. In 1962, about 120,000 people belonging to the Syrian Kurdish population were stripped of their citizenship, leaving them stateless and without claim to another nationality. They have become a stateless people under international law and have been issued special red identity cards by the Ministry of Interior. In accordance with state policy, Syrian Kurds are denied many rights that other Syrians enjoy, such as the right to vote, the right to own property, and the right to have marriages legally recognized. They are not entitled to passports and thus cannot exercise the internationally guaranteed right to freedom of movement nor can they legally leave and return to Syria.

(Sources of information for this case include: Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.)

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

No action is requested at this time. Many thanks to all those who sent letters of appeal.

Please send copies of your appeals, and any responses you may receive, or direct any questions you may have to Victoria Baxter, AAAS Science and Human Rights Program, 1200 New York Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20005; tel. 202-326-6797; email vbaxter@aaas.org; or fax 202-289-4950.

The keys to effective appeals are to be courteous and respectful, accurate and precise, impartial in approach, and as specific as possible regarding the alleged violation and the international human rights standards and instruments that apply to the situation. Reference to your scientific organization and professional affiliation is always helpful.

To ensure that appeals are current and credible, please do not continue to write appeals on this case after 90 days from the date of the posting unless an update has been issued.

To verify the contents of this alert and/or the electronic signature, please download the signed file for this alert along with the Program's PGP Public Key.

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