From correspondents in Damascus, Syria March 31, 2005 SYRIAN President Bashar al-Assad, in a bid to fortify national unity, today pardoned 312 Syrian Kurds accused of taking part in riots.The official Syrian Arab News Agency said the Kurds were released "in the framework of the presidential pardon that is based on the enhancement of national harmony".
Sources familiar with government thinking said that the state has been mulling a host of reforms that are designed to solve what Kurdish activists call the Kurdish issue.
Several banned Kurdish political groupings in Syria, whose Kurdish community is estimated at about 2 million people, demand the right to teach their language. They also demand citizenship which is required for state education and employment for about 200,000 Kurds classified as stateless based on a 1962 survey.
Like neighbouring Turkey and Iran, Syria worries Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq could spark separatism within its borders.
Hundreds of Syrian Kurds were arrested last March during riots and clashes with the police. The riot was triggered by a soccer match brawl in the northern town of Kameshli.
Most of those detained during and after the riots were freed in the days following the incidents. About 30 people, including policemen, were killed in the violence.
In February, the state security court sentenced 15 Kurds for up to three years on charges of seeking a breakaway state. A source said the 15 Kurds are believed to be part of the 312 included in the pardon, most of whom have been awaiting trial.
Syria has been in the spotlight since the February 14 killing of a Lebanese ex-prime minister in Beirut, where Damascus was the main power broker for the past three decades in view of its military presence in the small Arab state.
Hundreds of political prisoners have been released since Assad came to power upon the death of his father in 2000. He introduced a measure of political freedom, but critics say authorities later resumed its crackdown on activists.
