IRAQ REFLECTION: “Sardasht was our voice”
by Brad Langendoen
The signs read, “Stop killing journalists” and “End Terrorism.” Women and men, young and old, shouted, “Freedom, Freedom, Freedom,” as more than a thousand people rallied together on a crowded street in the heart of Suleimaniya, a city in the Kurdish region of Iraq.
On 5 May, twenty-three-year-old journalist and university student Sardasht Osman was kidnapped outside his school in the capital city of Erbil. Two days later, his body was discovered fifty miles away in the city of Mosul. Osman’s abduction is just one of many recent kidnappings throughout the region of Kurdistan.
The demonstration on Wednesday, 12 May, brought together politicians, lawyers, students, media representatives and everyday citizens and supporters. Many signs had a picture of the young journalist with the message, “Sardasht was our voice, and we will never be silent.”
Editor and Chief of Awene newspaper, Asos Hardi, welcomed the crowd with a commissioning statement as he proclaimed, “Greetings Sardasht’s!” He then followed with a plea to make human rights an essential part of Kurdish society.
In front of microphones and news cameras Hardi proclaimed, “If they want to kill our journalists, they want to kill our human rights… the rights that we as journalists have in acquiring more knowledge and information.”
As the sun was setting on Suleimaniya, crowds dispersed but a weeklong campaign entitled “We will not be silent,” was only just beginning. Speculation continues regarding the responsibility for the kidnapping, but regardless, the rally sent a message to the perpetrators: the citizens of Kurdistan will continue to resist and denounce the kidnappings and murder. Wednesday’s demonstration revealed a Kurdish community united against human rights violations and defiant in their commitment to freedom of speech. Hardi declared, “In Kurdistan, we are all brothers and sisters and mothers of Sardasht.”
