Kurdish Leader Disappears

Syria Press Monitor, 22-Aug-08

Friday, 22 August, 2008

IWPR

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

Kurdish Leader Disappears

Syria Press Monitor, 22-Aug-08

Six Syrian human rights organisations have called on President Bashar al-Assad to investigate the disappearance of a prominent Kurdish leader.

Mishal Tammo, an outspoken leader of the Kurdish opposition group Mustaqbal disappeared on August 15 as he left his home city of Ein Al-Arab, outside of Aleppo, in his own car. Security agencies have denied holding him.

In a statement issued on August 21, six Kurdish and Arabic organisations in Syria asked Assad to investigate Tammo’s disappearance and release him if he is being held by a security agency.

Syrian Kurdish parties and organisations said they believed that Tammo was taken by security agencies.

Kurdish Democratic Union Party leader Ismael Omar told All4Syria, a pro-government news website campaigning for reform in the country, that he is concerned Tammo would be killed like Kurdish activist Sheikh Mashuq Khaznawi.

Khaznawi’s beaten body was found in May 2005 near the Turkish border, three weeks after he disappeared.

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