Beirut: Syrian police opened fire at a group of Kurds celebrating their new year this month, killing at least one person despite signs that tensions were easing between the government and its restive Kurdish minority, human rights activists said yesterday.
The shooting happened on March 21 when authorities in the northern town of Raqqah asked Kurds celebrating their New Year, or Now Rouz, to replace their Kurdish flags with Syrian ones and images of President Bashar Al Assad, said the New-York based Human Rights Watch (HRW).
HRW said a fire truck sprayed the crowd with water after it refused to comply, prompting people to throw stones. Security forces then opened fire, Human Rights Watch said.
There was no comment from Syrian authorities who very rarely speak about security matters.
"Syrian officials need to find out why a New Year celebration turned into a tragedy," said Joe Stork, Middle East deputy director at Human Rights Watch.
"Those responsible for ordering forces to fire at the crowd with live ammunition should be brought to justice."
About 1.5 million of Syria's 19 million population are Kurds. Syria's Kurdish minority has long complained of discrimination, saying many of them are denied citizenship, making it difficult for them to find work or enroll in the state-run education system.
Khalil Hassan of the Beirut-based Committee of Torture Victims in the Prisons of the Syrian Regime said he received reports of three dead, two men and a 15-year-old girl.
The bloodshed came one day after a small group of Kurds were allowed to celebrate the new year in a Damascus hall after being given a license by the state for the first time ever.
Some Kurds saw granting the licence as a goodwill gesture by the government after years of persecution and neglect.
