HRW: Kurds harming Iraq's minorities in north

Kurds risk creating 'full-blown human rights catastrophe' for small communities in Iraq north.

BAGHDAD - Minorities in northern Iraq are the victims of a conflict between Kurd and Arabs in some provinces, Human Rights Watch warned Tuesday.

In a report titled "On vulnerable ground: violence against minority communities in Nineveh province's disputed territories," the group said the area's ruling Kurds risk creating "a full-blown human rights catastrophe" for small communities that have lived there through the ages.

Iraq's troubled provinces include Nineveh, of which Mosul is the capital, the oil-rich province and city of Kirkuk, and Diyala.

The HRW report said that while Iraq's Kurds deserved redress for the "crimes" committed against them by previous governments, the issue of disputed territories should be treated separately.

"The minority communities who live there (are) in a precarious position, bearing the brunt of the conflict and coming under intense pressure to declare their loyalty to one side or the other, or face the consequences," it said.

"They have been victimized by Kurdish authorities' heavy-handed tactics, including arbitrary arrests and detentions, and intimidation, directed at anyone resistant to Kurdish expansionist plans."

To avert the crisis, New York-based HRW said the regional government should "initiate independent and impartial investigations of individuals, including Kurdish security forces, alleged to be responsible for carrying out killings, beatings and torture against minorities."

It should also modify its constitution to give legal recognition to Shabaks and Yazidis as distinct ethnic groups and "cease repression" of those "that oppose Kurdish policies in the disputed areas," the report said.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=35611.