Iran: Crackdown on Ethnic Kurds

Question: What is our reaction to Iranian government crackdown on ethnic minority Kurds in northern party of country?

Answer: The United States is concerned by reports of an Iranian government crackdown on ethnic Kurds in northern Iran, and in Iran's southwestern province of Khuzestan. These reports indicate that several people have been killed and that many more, perhaps hundreds, may have been arrested.

Denial of the rights of minority groups is one aspect of the regime's appalling human rights and democracy record that has been well documented by non-governmental organizations and in our annual Country Report on Human Rights. We call on the Iranian authorities to exercise restraint and to respect the peaceful exercise by the Iranian people of their democratic rights.

2005/770 Released on August 8, 2005

Source: state.gov Taken Question Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC August 8, 2005 Question Taken at the August 8, 2005 Daily Press Briefing

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