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Tehran, March 10 (AFP) -- Around 100 Iranian
Kurds were arrested after staging demonstrations to show their
solidarity with Iraqi Kurds following the signing of Iraq's new
interim constitution, two ethnic Kurdish MPs told AFP.
"Over the past few days, residents of several
Kurdish towns have taken to the street to show their joy and their
solidarity with the Iraqi Kurds, who have gained the right of autonomy
after years of repression," said Jalal Jalalizadeh, a deputy from the
western Iranian town of Sanandaj.
"In many of the towns, security forces acted
quickly, but unfortunately in some towns the demonstrators committed
riotous acts and the police arrested around 100 people as a result,"
he said.
According to the MP, unrest was seen in the
towns of Mahabad, Boukan and Marivan, with some protestors demanding
"democracy in Iran and autonomy for Iranian Kurdistan".
Under the interim Iraqi constitution signed in
Baghdad on Monday, Iraqi Kurdistan will retain its federal status,
while Kurdish is recognised as one of the two official languages of
Iraq.
On Wednesday, the hardline Jomhuri Islami
newspaper also reported unrest in Kurdish towns, and quoted a police
statement from Marivan as saying that a politician barred from
standing in last month's parliament elections was among those
detained.
The paper also said the demonstrators destroyed
a statue of a young Iranian killed in the 1980-88 war with Iraq and
used by the Islamic regime here as a symbol of devotion and sacrifice
to the revolution.
"Apparently the inhabitants did destroy the
statue," Jalalizadeh said. "For several years they have been asking
for the erection of a statue of the great poet of Marivan, Mohammad
Khanegh who died 30 years ago, but this has been refused."
Another Sanandaj MP, Bahayedin Adad, said that
in the town of Boukan some 20 people were arrested, and 15 injured.
Iran has an estimated six million Kurds, and
successive central governments in Tehran have consistently shown
little mercy towards any moves in the Kurdish regions towards
independence.
The area was the scene of heavy fighting after
the 1979 revolution between Kurdish separatists and the regime.
The Islamic regime has also in the past made
deals with the two main Iraqi Kurd parties -- the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) -- that
Iranian Kurdish opposition groups based across the border are kept on
a tight leash.
Iran Monday welcomed the signing of Iraq's
interim constitution but failed to comment on its contents, which as
well as guaranteeing Kurdish autonomy give only a supporting role to
Islam.
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