KurdistanObserver.com

Kurdish lawmaker: Kurds are Ready To Begin a Civil Disobedience Movement

Iran Says Calm Restored in Kurdish Area after riots

TEHRAN, July 25 (Reuters) - The Kurdish town of Mahabad in northwestern Iran was calm on Monday following days of riots that erupted after police shot dead a young Kurdish man, a spokesman for the Iranian Interior Ministry said.

"The security situation is under control and the city is calm," said Interior Ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani.

"It was not a political issue at all."

The ISNA students news agency said at least one police officer had been killed and 18 protestors arrested during the riots, which were triggered by the fatal shooting of Kamal Asfarm on July 9.

Police said Asfarm was on the run and had refused to surrender. Khanjani said he died while police were taking him to hospital.

Relatives say Asfarm was an activist who led protests against the ruling clerical establishment in the western Kurdish towns, demanding more power for Iran's Kurdish ethnic minority.

During the unrest people smashed and set fire to cars and banks and clashed with security forces, who responded with tear gas, ISNA reported.

Former Kurdish lawmaker Bahaeddin Adab told Reuters the unrest resulted from the denial of the Kurdish minority's "democratic rights" since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"Their rights have been denied in the past two decades. Iran's Kurds are ready to begin a civil disobedience movement," said Adab, a former MP from the Kurdish town of Sanandaj.

Adab said Iranian Kurds had used the killing as an excuse to show their dissatisfaction.

"Kurds want their share of the power and wealth. They want justice in the distribution of that power," he added.

Iran denies any discrimination against ethnic minorities.

Adab said pictures posted by Asfarm's family on the internet showed he had been tortured by police.

Officials have denied such reports. A local official told ISNA that the Internet pictures of Asfarm were taken after an autopsy to find the cause of his death.

Predominantly Sunni Muslim Kurds rioted in at least two other towns in response to rumours Asfarm's death, the official IRNA news agency said on Monday.