ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Established in 2009, a Kurdish human rights group in Syria says though its work started out monitoring the central Syrian government’s violations against Kurds, since the ISIS war they have also taken flack from their fellow Kurds for reporting on abuses committed by the newly autonomous Kurdish authorities in the area.
Siamand Hajo and Eva have run Kurd Watch since its beginning, and they say they strive to fact check and confirm via attorneys and independent sources all intelligence passed their way. They both said ongoing human rights violations in Syria and Rojava need to be confirmed by a reliable source before being published on the Kurd Watch website, which is in four languages.
“We publish news when we are 100 percent sure it is accurate,” Hajo said. “We need to talk to the lawyer or the person whose rights were violated. Some people work with us who know what is trustworthy and reliable and what is not.”
“Those who used to admire us, now tell us that we work against Kurds. This shows that chauvinism has increased even inside Syria’s Kurdish community,” he continued.
“There is no doubt our work doesn’t make the PYD (Democratic Union Party) happy. This is true because the PYD established its own government and is doing its own propaganda, but they must understand that international human rights standards must be followed,” Eva added. “Unfortunately the current situation is critical.”
More on Kurd Watch can be found in the above video.
