Iraqi Kurdistan's Silenced Spring

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Protesters in Sulaimaniya’s Sara Square on March 18, 2011. On April 18, security forces violently seized control of Sara Square, the center of daily protests in the city since February 17. A day later, on April 19, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Security Committee for Sulaimaniya Province banned all unlicensed demonstrations. Legislation passed in December gives authorities wide discretion to decide whether to approve a license for a protest. © 2011 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 245389
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Female protesters in Sara Square on March 25, 2011. The protests sweeping the Middle East motivated thousands of Kurds from all walks of life to demonstrate in cities across Iraqi Kurdistan earlier this year. For 60 consecutive days, protesters met in Sara Square to call for an end to widespread corruption and greater civil and political rights - until security forces violently intervened on April 18, 2011. © 2011 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 245389
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Omed Jalal Darwesh’s widow and son. On February 26, 2011, a bullet killed bystander Darwesh after unknown gunmen fired live ammunition near Sara Square. “He only went there to buy groceries at the market,” said his wife of 19 months, Sazgar Fareeq Abdullah, on March 19. “I still can’t believe he’s gone.” © 2011 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 245389
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Rezhwan Ali’s portrait in his family’s house in Sulaimaniya. On February 17, 2011, security forces, including some in uniform, fired live ammunition at protesters in the city, killing Ali, after hundreds marched to the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and started throwing rocks. Ali died instantly after he was shot in the head. At least 50 others were injured during the demonstration. © 2011 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 245389
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Rezhwan Ali’s parents. On the afternoon of February 17, 2011, officials at a hospital in Sulaimaniya called Haji Ali Kashi and Dlsoz Abdulla Mustafa (shown here on March 19), to collect the body of their 15-year-old son. © 2011 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 245389
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This photojournalist was shot in the right hand by Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) security forces during the February 17, 2011 protest in front of the KDP building in Sulaimaniya. “There were bullets flying everywhere,” he recounted. “Most of the people they shot and injured were fleeing the protests.” He never gave a statement to the police because he feared retribution. “We all know what happens to journalists here.” © 2011 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 245389
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Zahir Muhmood Khardaghi, holds a pair of sunglasses, one of his son’s, Surkew Zahir’s, favorite possessions. In the afternoon on February 19, 2011, plainclothes security forces shot into a crowd of demonstrators in Sulaimaniya’s Khanaqa Square, killing two, including 16-year-old Surkew Zahir. Khardaghi said that he quietly buried his son the morning after he was killed. © 2011 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 245389
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Fatima Ahmed Salih in front of a portrait of her 28-year-old son, Sherzad Taha, who was killed in the Sulaimaniya protest on February 19, 2011. Video and photo footage of the crackdown shows assailants firing directly into the crowd of demonstrators. After waking up from an emergency operation at about 11 PM on February 19, 2011, Taha told his parents, “Don’t worry, I’m going to be okay.” He died shortly thereafter. © 2011 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 245389
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Sherzad Taha was shot twice. One bullet lodged in his pelvis, as shown by his X-ray. © 2011 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 245389
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On February 20, 2011, dozens of armed men stormed the headquarters of the independent Nalia Radio and Television (NRT) station in Sulaimaniya, shooting up broadcasting equipment and wounding a guard. The gunmen then doused the premises with gasoline and set fire to the building, according to the station’s staff. NRT, which broadcast footage of the protests, had begun its inaugural broadcast only two days before the attack. © 2011 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 245389
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A cameraman inside the NRT station on March 15, 2011. NRT’s director and journalists received anonymous death threats before and after the attack. © 2011 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 245389
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Journalist Zana Ali Ghazi recovering at his home in Saeed Sadiq. Ghazi, 32, said that while he was trying to report on a protest in the city of Saeed Sadiq on March 15, 2011, eight armed men, some in uniform, cracked three of his ribs and beat him with wooden clubs and Kalashnikovs until he lost consciousness. “They told me that if I continued to cover this type of news, they would kill me." © 2011 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 245389
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Student protester Nariman Latif Nasrulla said he suffered a gash in his head from a police attack on March 15, 2011, during a demonstration in Saeed Sadiq. He holds up the sign decrying poor government services that he carried at the protest. © 2011 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 245389
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Protesters in downtown Halabja on March 24, 2011. Despite the risks from security forces, thousands across Iraqi Kurdistan protested widespread corruption and the fact that the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan have dominated all political matters in the region for the past two decades. © 2011 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 245389
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In Halabja on March 16, 2011, protesters gave security forces flowers. Despite the Kurdistan Regional Government’s claim that it has trained security forces to respect basic rights, the response of those forces to the ongoing demonstrations has shown a different reality. © 2011 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 245389
In March 2011, Human Rights Watch researcher Samer Muscati traveled across Iraqi Kurdistan, an autonomous region in northern Iraq, to monitor the protests of thousands of Kurds and the Kurdistan Regional Governments' (KRG) reaction to them. Though democratically elected, the KRG responded to these protests in much the same way as despots around the region. Security forces and their proxies repressed journalists through threats, arbitrary arrests, beatings and harassment, and by confiscating and destroying their equipment. On April 18, security forces violently seized control of Sara Square, the center of daily protests in Sulaimaniya, and have prevented any more demonstrations.
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