All Kurds share the joy that Iraq has had a Kurdish President and that Barzani is elected to be President in three Kurdish provinces in Northern Iraq. However, liberation in some parts of Kurdistan does not grant that basic human rights are observed for all Kurds, says Mr. Abdurrahman Heci, leader of the Iranian Kurdish party PJAK. Mr. Abdurrahman visited the Norwegian Human Rights House on Thursday 16 June. (17-JUNE-05)
Mr. Abdurrahman is visiting Norway to meet with Norwegian authorities, and also with independent human rights organisations. He and his team came to the Norwegian Human Rights House as the guests of the Norwegian Council for the Rights of the Kurdish People, whose Information Manager Liv Kjølseth (left) chaired the meeting. Niels Jacob Harbitz of the Human Rights House Foundation also attended.
-They are ruining our youth
Mr. Abdurrahman made it very clear that PJAK, the party he represents, is a modern, moderate and rather more liberal Kurdish party, campaigning, for instance, for equal rights and representation of women in all fora. PJAK also distances itself from all kinds of classical Kurdish nationalism, believing more in peaceful co-existence and co-operation for a true multi-ethnic democracy than in simply splitting the world up in ever smaller states. Having said that, though, the rights of the Kurds are constantly being violated, and PJAK wishes to cooperate with both state and civil society institutions throughout Europe to add to the pressure already mounting on Iranian authorities to improve the human rights situation of the Kurds, he added. Mr. Abdurrahman is also particularly concerned about Kurdish youth, whose unemployment rates are much higher than the that of the youth in the rest of the country. Kurdish youth are also exposed to what Mr. Abdurrahman called a ‘white war,’ a pushing of very cheap drugs into their social environments. Mr. Abdurrahman left it open as to whether or not this might be a deliberate strategy to keep them away from political activism.
-Only those in favour of keeping me as President can run for President
Mr. Abdurrahman believes the international society must oppose the Iranian regime of clergymen who really controls the country. Imam Khameini selects his own cabinet of loyal Ministers / High Priests who considers the Imam?s powers as divine, and thus unlimited. For these reasons, Mr. Abdurrahman thought that the 17 June elections, no matter the outcome, would not make much of a difference. According to an opinion poll carried out by PJAK, only 15-16 percent of all Iranian Kurds were planning to cats their vote. Only candidates in favour of maintaining the current regime were eligible, he explained, and with such restrictions on the freedom of opinion, most Kurds saw no reason to participate at all. The Kurds, however, are joined by all other Iranian parties, who are also declared non-eligible.
-Can we have a Human Rights House for Kurdistan?
Mr. Abdurrahman was pleased to notice that the Human Rights House Network has already extended to Aserbaijan, a neighbouring country to Iran and all the more pleased to learn of HRH’s close relationship with the 2003 Nobel Peae Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi (right), who visited HRH’s headquarters in Oslo in October 2004, and left no doubt that she wanted to establish a Human Rights House in Teheran, possibly even spending some of the Nobel Peace Prize money to have it.
&redirect_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F){kind=link}