Monday morning, 4 April, the community of Las Pavas exercised their right to return to their land.  Though anxious because of threats directed at community leaders and the news that the police were gathered ahead, approximately twenty families of the originally displaced 123 walked for two hours with their belongings in hand to the land from which National Police and a police riot squad forced them out nearly two years ago, in July 2009.  International and national groups are accompanying the community, including CPT.

The below article, used by permission, is an excellent analysis of what is happening here in the Kurdish north of Iraq.  The bloodbath referred to in the last paragraph is a real possibility because the ruling parties denied one hundred demonstrators—including seventy religious leaders and twenty doctors—their right to demonstrate in Erbil for the second time.  In spite of this repression, the Erbil organizers are assessing ways to go forward with demonstrations.  They have asked CPT to walk with them through this process and have contacted a large number of foreign embassies and other international groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to make them aware of the situation.

Peace, CPTIraq

 
Kurdistan: Tunisia or Libya of the Middle East?

By Dr. Goran Abdulla

 Kurdistan is experiencing worrying developments.  Over the last few days, more violence erupted in various parts of the region.  Militias affiliated with the authorities in Kalar attacked members of Kurdistan and Iraq parliament and injured two of them.  Religious leaders who showed leadership in the demonstrations were detained in Suleimaniyah.  More than fifty people were injured in the city when a group of demonstrators, who organizers claim are bribed by the authorities to involve [themselves] in acts of violence, threw stones at military and security officers.