04_SYR

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QAMICHLI (AFP) - Les affrontements qui ont éclaté ces derniers jours dans le nord-est de la Syrie ont dégénéré, opposant ces dernières 24 heures des habitants kurdes et arabes, faisant 17 tués, tous des Kurdes, a affirmé mercredi un responsable d'un parti kurde interdit.

Ces informations n'ont pas été confirmées par les autorités syriennes. Ces affrontements, qui ont également fait plusieurs dizaines de blessés, se sont poursuivis dans la nuit de mardi à mercredi dans le nord du pays, notamment dans la région d'Alep, a précisé Machaal Timo, membre du bureau politique du parti de l'Union du peuple kurde (interdit).

Neuf Kurdes ont été tués dans les quartiers périphériques de la ville d'Alep (nord-ouest), ceux d'Asharafiyé et de cheikh Maksoud, six dans le village d'Ifrine (40 km à l'ouest d'Alep) et deux dans celui de Ras Al-Ayn (nord-est), près de la frontière turque, a-t-il affirmé.

Des troubles ont également eu lieu aux abords des villages frontaliers d'Amouda, Derik, Ain Diwar, Malkiyé, Derbassiyé, a-t-il ajouté.

Deux responsables de mouvements kurdes avaient fait état mardi de trois morts parmi les Kurdes dans la région d'Alep.

Les affrontements qui avaient éclaté vendredi dans la ville de Qamichli (600 km au nord-est de Damas), avaient dans un premier temps opposé Kurdes et forces de l'ordre.

Des villages kurdes ont été attaqués par des membres de tribus arabes qui se sont livrés à des actes de vendetta après que des Kurdes eurent tué des Arabes au cours du week-end dans la ville de Qamichli, selon M. Timo.

Il a indiqué que des responsables du gouvernement avaient tenu une réunion avec des notables des deux bords pour tenter de calmer la tension.

Les troubles ont commencé vendredi à Qamichli, où vit une importante communauté kurde, avant un match du championnat de football national, lorsque des partisans de l'équipe adverse ont lancé des slogans hostiles aux chefs kurdes irakiens et ont brandi des portraits du président irakien déchu Saddam Hussein.

Les forces de l'ordre ayant ouvert le feu sur les supporteurs kurdes, les troubles ont alors tourné à l'émeute et des manifestants ont saccagé et brûlé des édifices publics et ont fait descendre le drapeau syrien pour hisser les couleurs kurdes.

Au cours du week-end, les affrontements avaient déjà fait 19 morts et 150 blessés, selon des informations de diverses sources kurdes.

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DAMASCUS, Syria - The latest clashes between security forces and Kurds in northern Syria have left at least eight people dead, a Kurdish politician and a witness said Wednesday.

The deaths from Tuesday's violence raised to at least 24 the number of people who have died in recent fighting among Kurds, police and members of Syria 's Arab majority.

The Syrian government, which has not issued any casualty figures since Kurdish clashes with police began before a soccer game Friday, did not confirm the report.

Ahmed Qassem of the Democratic Kurdish Party in Syria said two Kurds and three police officers were killed Tuesday in a riot in Aleppo , Syria 's second-biggest city, while a third Kurd was hospitalized and died of his injuries Wednesday.

Two other people were killed in a riot in Afreen, 40 miles north of Aleppo , witness Othman Mohammed said.

Qassem said both riots began as Kurdish demonstrations to commemorate the anniversary of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s deadly 1988 poison gas attack on the Iraqi Kurdish town of Halabja .

In Aleppo , security forces opened fire on hundreds of Kurds who were marking the anniversary of the Iraqi attack, which killed thousands of people, Qassem said. The Kurds fought police with knives, sticks and stones, but it was not clear how the violence started.

Kurds in Aleppo have marked Halabja's anniversary in previous years by standing in silence for five minutes. But on Tuesday, Qassem said, the Kurds resisted when the police tried to disperse them immediately after the five minutes.

Police fired in the air, the demonstrators responded by throwing rocks and sticks, and then police began firing into the crowd, Qassem said.

Clashes involving Syria 's Kurdish minority began Friday with a brawl between supporters of two teams in a soccer stadium in Qamishli, 450 miles northeast of Damascus . One of the teams had many of Kurdish players.

Kurds then went on the rampage on Saturday in Qamishli at a funeral for the riot victims. It spread to the neighboring city of Hasakah . More than 100 people were wounded.

The Cabinet said "mobs and opportunists of exploited (the incident) to destroy private and public properties," according to a statement carried by the official Syrian Arab News Agency on Wednesday. The Cabinet discussed the violence Tuesday night.

The riots are the first major disturbances for years in Syria , where the ruling Baath Party has little tolerance for dissent.

The unrest has raised concern that the Kurds, whom the constitution does not recognize, have been emboldened by the political role that Kurds have assumed in neighboring Iraq (news - web sites) since Saddam's ouster by U.S.-led forces last year.

The state-run newspaper Al-Thawra published an editorial Wednesday that blamed the violence on "intriguers" inspired by "foreign pressures."

A Kurdish politician in Qamishli, Faisal Youssef, denied that the Kurds were driven by external pressure.

"We would never allow anybody to interfere in our internal affairs," said Youssef, of the Progressive and Democratic Kurdish Party in Syria

Kurds make up about 1.5 million of Syria 's 18.5 million people. Most live in the underdeveloped provinces of Qamishli and Hasakah.

Qamishli and Hasakah were calm on Wednesday and people went about their business as normal, according to Youssef in Qamishli and a resident of Hasakah, Mudhar Assad.

ARBIL, Iraq, March 17 (Reuters) - About 5,000 Kurds marched in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil on Wednesday to protest at the treatment of Kurds in Syria, where more than 30 people have been reported killed in clashes since Friday.

Witnesses said the protesters, waving banners and Kurdish flags, headed for a U.N. office to demand that the United Nations and human rights groups stop what they called a Syrian clampdown on Kurds.

"We condemn the massacre and looting of property of Kurdish people in Syria ," one banner read. "We demand that the Syrian president prevents attacks on the Kurds," said another.

Syria

denies that ethnic tension is causing the trouble that erupted on Friday at a soccer stadium in the northeastern town of Kameshli , blaming politically motivated troublemakers.

At least 14 people were killed and about 50 were hospitalised for injuries both at the match and during riots by Syrian Kurds in northeastern parts of Syria over the weekend.

Sources in Turkey said 11 people were killed in the province of al-Hassaka in fresh clashes on Monday and another seven were killed in Aleppo , but the reports were denied by a Syrian official. Syria did not issue any figures of its own.

Since a U.S.-led invasion toppled Iraq 's Saddam Hussein last year, Syria and Turkey have voiced opposition to any moves to strengthen Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq , fearing it could ignite similar aspirations among their own Kurdish populations.

"No Kurds can keep quiet with what is happening to our brothers in Syria and Turkey ," said Kurdistan Mukiriani, a female university lecturer who was among the protesters in Arbil.

Ghafour Makhmouri said he had joined the march to "condemn the aggression against our Kurdish brothers in Syria ".

There are about two million Kurds in

Syria

's 17 million population, some 200,000 of whom are not recognised as citizens.

Turkey

, Iran and Iraq also have substantial Kurdish minorities and their governments have at times fought armed Kurdish guerrilla movements seeking autonomy or independence.

Some 17 Kurds killed, confrontation increases pressures in Syria

Syria

, Politics, 3/18/2004

Syrian Kurdish sources said that the confrontations between the Arab citizens and the Kurds developed during the past 24 hours in the north east part of the country and this resulted in killing 17 persons all of them Kurds, so as number of killings since the eruption of the clashes on Friday reached 36, according to the same sources.

Member of the political bureau of the Kurdistani people's federation party, which is banned in Syria , Mashaal Timo, said that the confrontations continued on Tuesday evening in the northern part of the country especially in Aleppo area.

He indicated that 9 Kurds were killed in the two suburbs of al-Ashrafeyah and al-Sheikh Maqsoud in the city of Aleppo , while other 6 were killed in Ifrin to the west of Aleppo , besides two others in Raas al-Ein near the border with Turkey .

Timo added that the confrontations also prevailed the suburbs of the towns of Amouda, Dereik, Ein Dewar, al-Malekeyah and al-Derbaseyah which border Turkey .

Since last Friday, violent confrontations have taken place between the Kurds and the security forces started in al-Qamishli city before a football match was converted into acts of riots when supporters of the rival team chanted slogans against the Iraqi Kurds leaders and carried the pictures of the toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

In the second day demonstrations of protests converted into acts of riots and these clashes in certain times took the form of confrontations between Kurds and Arab tribes that resulted in hundreds of wounded and detainees as well as damaging a train station, schools and government offices in the north east of the country.

The governor of al-Hassaka, Salim Kabboul, said that five Syrian Arabs were killed in north- east

Syria

since the eruption of the riots acts with the Kurds on march 12.

In withstanding these acts of unrest, the Syrian official departments announced opening investigations. The Syrian authorities denied ethnic tensions to be behind the problem blaming riot makers of having foreign links and political intensions.