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           Syrian Kurds Accused of Human Rights Abuses Against Arabs

   by Jamie Dettmer

   Kurdish forces in northern Syria, one of the few armed groups in the
   multi-layered civil war trusted by the U.S.-led coalition to battle
   Islamic State extremists, are said to have carried out forced
   displacement of Arabs and Turkmen and mass house demolitions of
   villages in territory they have captured.

   [1]Amnesty International says the Popular Protection Units, the YPG, an
   offshoot of Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK, razed
   entire villages captured from Islamic State forces in retaliation
   either for perceived sympathies with the jihadist group or as
   punishment for past grievances and old land disputes.

   The report entitled [2]We Had Nowhere Else To Go comes a day after U.S.
   officials said the U.S. had dropped 50 tons of arms and ammunition to
   rebels in northern Syria. The YPG is believed to have been among the
   beneficiaries of the air-drop.

   Amnesty dismisses claims by Kurdish authorities the forced displacement
   was necessary on military grounds, saying its investigators in an
   on-the-ground fact-finding mission to 14 villages in al-Hasakeh and
   al-Raqqa governorates found no such justification.

   Citing eye-witness accounts and satellite imagery, the report says
   Kurdish groups in the fight against IS "appear to be trampling all over
   the rights of civilians who are caught in the middle."

   "We saw extensive displacement and destruction that did not occur as a
   result of fighting. This report uncovers clear evidence of a
   deliberate, coordinated campaign of collective punishment of civilians
   in villages previously captured by IS or where a small minority were
   suspected of supporting the group," said Lama Fakih, an Amnesty
   adviser.

   Isolated incidents

   Satellite imagery of Husseiniya village, in the Tel Hamees countryside
   shows 225 buildings standing in June 2014 but only 14 remaining a year
   later, the rights group said.

   The YPG has admitted to some "isolated incidents" of forcing Arabs out
   of their homes in villages captured by Syrian Kurdish forces. In July,
   PYD leader Salih Muslim told CNN, "Some circles are trying to ignite a
   Kurdish-Arab military conflict." During the interview he denied
   allegations his forces have been engaging in the forced displacement of
   Arabs.

   The U.S. government has not publicly commented on Amnesty's
   allegations, but one Turkey-based American official said Washington
   started months ago to press YPG leaders not to take advantage of their
   military advances, backed by U.S.-led airstrikes against IS, for a
   land-grab. "We will just push them much harder and demand a clearer
   explanation," he told VOA.

   In June, the Turkish government, as VOA reported, conveyed its concerns
   about the YPG and its associated Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party,
   the PYD, seeking demographic changes or population shifts on the Syrian
   side of the border as a result of Kurdish military offensives against
   jihadists.

   U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said he understands Ankara's
   concerns, but he said during the prolonged battle for the northern
   Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani, "It would be irresponsible of us,
   as well as morally very difficult, to turn your back on a community
   fighting IS as hard as it is," he said.

   On Sunday, in an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes, President Barack
   Obama acknowledged the challenges the West is facing in Syria in its
   efforts to battle IS and find a solution to a four-year-long civil war
   that has left 250,000 people dead. One of the challenges, he said, has
   been trying to find a way to "moderate opposition on the ground."

   Accusations of rights violations

   This isn't the first time the Kurdish group has been accused of serious
   human rights violations, and fears have been mounting since mid-2014
   that it is determined to alter the demographic map to further its aim
   to enlarge its territory and create an autonomous state in northern
   Syria.

   In June 2014, Human Rights Watch accused the YPG of recruiting child
   soldiers, detaining arbitrarily those who oppose its authority, and
   failing to address unsolved killings and disappearances.

   The Kurds pledged then not to use children under the age of 18 to
   fight. But subsequent probes by rights groups have found that
   commitment regularly broken.

   This week, Russia Today aired a YPG-assisted documentary focused on
   women Kurdish fighters and interviewed at least one 16-year-old
   recruit.

   Since mounting a military intervention in Syria, Moscow has been
   courting the YPG and PYD and Russia Today has been broadcasting
   laudatory commentary on the group.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [3]http://www.voanews.com/content/syrian-kurds-accused-of-human-rights-
   abuses-against-arabs/3003693.html

References

   1. http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/press-releases/syria-war-crimes-amplify-suffering-of-eastern-ghouta-s-bombed-and-besieged-civilians?ac=homepage
   2. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCcQFjADahUKEwjZxpiEtL_IAhVCdD4KHdAMCRc&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amnesty.org%2Fdownload%2FDocuments%2FMDE2425032015ENGLISH.PDF&usg=AFQjCNFaUjtQ1XklfL22MBM71QqaEp8evw
   3. http://www.voanews.com/content/syrian-kurds-accused-of-human-rights-abuses-against-arabs/3003693.html