Watchdog

BAGHDAD -- A Iraqi Kurdish official has said that the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) rejects allegations of abuse in a critical report by Amnesty International on the human rights situation in Iraqi Kurdistan.

KRG Human Rights Ministry spokesman Nadhum Delband told RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq that parts of the report are out of date, including that on the detention without trial of 13 members of the Ansar Al-Islam militant group who have since been released.

While Delband acknowledged that human rights violations are committed in KRG detention centers, he described such abuses as individual cases in which officials have taken "legal action against the perpetrators."

Said Abu Madduha, a Middle East expert at Amnesty International, says that the report is the result of a year-long inquiry and field visits to Iraq's Kurdish region. He added that there are some 84 people on death row in Kurdish jails.

Delband said that the ministry has presented to the KRG a draft bill abolishing capital punishment.

KAZAN, Tatarstan -- Two Tatar youth organizations have called on Moscow to give official status to the Tatar language in Russia, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports.

Uzebez (Ourselves) and the Tatar Youth Forum said on April 14 that they have begun collecting signatures for their proposal and are seeking to have the issue considered in the Russian State Duma.

The organizations claim that because Tatars are the second-largest ethnic group in Russia, their native language should be recognized as an official state language alongside Russian. They cite Finland's recognition of Swedish as an official language even though ethnic Swedes make up just 6 percent of Finland's population.

Ethnic Tatars make up some 4 percent of Russia's population.

Meanwhile, the Azatliq (Liberty) Tatar Youth Union issued a statement saying that Tatarstan's government is under pressure from Moscow and is unable to maintain the republic’s sovereignty.

Azatliq said it will use "all possible means" to protect Tatarstan's "political and economical sovereignty."