SYRIA: A SYRIAN SHEIKH OF KURDISH ORIGIN BLAMES FOREIGN INTERVENTION FOR TWO DAYS OF KURDISH RIOTING IN KAMESHLI WHICH LEFT 14 PEOPLE DEAD

Record ID: 276730

  • Title: SYRIA: A SYRIAN SHEIKH OF KURDISH ORIGIN BLAMES FOREIGN INTERVENTION FOR TWO DAYS OF KURDISH RIOTING IN KAMESHLI WHICH LEFT 14 PEOPLE DEAD
  • Date: 14th March 2004
  • Summary: (U4)KAMESHLI, SYRIA (MARCH 15, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. DESTROYED BUILDING BURNING 0.05 2. CLOSE OF FIRE 0.09 3. DESTROYED BUILDING 0.13 4. DESTROYED BUILDING PAN LEFT TO MORE DESTRUCTION; ZOOM IN TO BUILDING 0.33 5. BURNT TRACTOR POLICE STATION PUILL OUT TO BUILDING 0.55 6. DESTRUCTION INSIDE POLICE STATION 0.59 7.
  • Embargoed: 29th March 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KAMESHLI AND AL-HASSAKA, SYRIA
  • Country: Syria
  • Reuters ID: LVA7AMQMHHCEMZ53GE7J5XGY8S1S
  • Story Text: Syrian Sheikh of Kurdish origin accuses foreigners
    of formenting soccer riots and a stampede that left 14
    people dead and about 40 injured.


    A burning grain silo and damaged public buildings
    showed the severity of two days of Kurdish rioting that
    killed 14 people on Monday (March 15).

    Senior security officials met local leaders as part of
    efforts to restore order, and a Reuters correspondent
    touring the town saw schools and public offices that had
    been wrecked or burnt.

    The violence in Kameshli, an ethnically mixed town near
    the Turkish and Iraqi border, ended after Interior Minister
    Ali Haj Hammoud flew to the area to take control and the
    authorities threatened those responsible with the "severest
    punishments".

    Police officers and residents armed with licensed
    hunting rifles patrolled the streets of al-Hassaka, the
    administrative centre of the region, where public and
    private buildings had been attacked and damaged. They said
    their orders were not to use force unless "absolutely
    necessary".

    Public offices in the al-Hassaka governorate, which has
    a population of 1.5 million with about 150,000 Kurds, were
    open for business, but parents were keeping children away
    from school, officials and residents said.

    At least 14 people were killed and up to 40 badly
    injured during the riots on Friday and Saturday, which
    spread to several towns in the area and were triggered by a
    brawl and stampede at a soccer match in Kameshli.

    Sources close to government thinking said Kurdish
    politicians had tried to turn a soccer match riot into a
    political issue, a reference to the grievances of some 200,000 Kurds
    no
    t recognised as citizens.

    Khaled Kheder, deputy governor of al-Hassaka, accused
    Kurdish political groups of instigating the rioting.

    "The parties that instigated (the violence), which have
    internal and external affiliations, have deployed some poor
    Kurds to use them and exploit them..." he said.

    Sleiman Al Assaad, Sheikh of a Turkish tribe living in
    Syria, on Monday (March 15) accused outsiders for causing
    trouble during the soccer game on Saturday.

    There are about two million Kurds in Syria's 17 million
    population, but Syrian officials avoid reference to Kurds
    as a distinct minority and stress the importance of
    national unity. Kurds and other minorities have held senior
    government and army positions.




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