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Human Rights Watch Calls on Syrian Kurds and KRG to Release Political Prisoners
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Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement to ARA News called on both the Kurdish PYD-led and KDP-led administrations in Iraq and Syria to release prisoners that were arrested after clashes between Kurdish forces in Sinjar on 3 March. "We are concerned about the apparent arbitrary arrests in both Syria and the KRG [Iraqi Kurdistan] related to the Sinjar clashes," Lama Fakih, deputy director in Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division told ARA News in an exclusive interview. "Arresting peaceful protestors only serves to undermine the freedom of assembly and expression. All arbitrarily held political detainees should be immediately released," she said. The Asayish security forces led by the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria's Kurdish region (Rojava) have arrested over 40 members of the pro-Barzani Kurdish National Council (KNC) after clashes in Sinjar between the KDP-linked Rojava Peshmerga forces and the PKK-affiliated Shingal Resistance Units (YBS). This while the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)-led security forces arrested 23 opposition protestors of which six are still being held in prison in Iraqi Kurdistan. According to a KNC member from Qamishli, who talked to ARA News on condition of anonymity for safety reasons, at least 13 KNC offices were closed down by the PYD-led local authorities. "Most of these offices were destroyed and burnt before closing," he said. The KNC office in Geneva last Thursday released a statement saying that several KNC offices were burned and KNC members were arrested. "More than twenty offices have been torched or demolished, and subsequently were sealed up by PYD security forces," the KNC said. "The same happened to the office of the Assyrian Democratic Organization (ADO) in Hisi



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