Head of the Human Rights Committee (MAF), Mohammed Khalil Ayoub said in an exclusive interview with Kurdistan Street News Network that he spent many years in organizational work, beginning as a founding member of the Kurdish Democratic Unity Party (Yekiti) and serving as general president alongside late Ismail Omar, of the Union of Three Parties.
He said that several well-known politicians and leaders from the era, including US Congress members and President Masoud Barzani, attended his 1992 conference. He expressed his remorse for the division between the parties, pointing out that he was a partner in the secession, seeking to soothe the hearts of Kurdish people for the sake of Kurdish unity but to no result.
Ayoub continued, “They founded the Human Rights Committee (MAF) on October 5, 1996, because they lacked faith in the capacity of the Kurdish struggle to satisfy their ambitions. They chose this date, he continued, because the 1962 census created Kurdish identity and marked a harsh past the Kurdish people went through. This census resulted from an authoritarian government devoid of recognition for human rights.”
He noted that at the time they lacked methods of contact and the security officials presented several challenges. Either via Turkey or by dodging the mail in Damascus, they battled to send reports to Europe. Their motto, he said, was to safeguard women, educate and train children, oversee and arrange jails and those worthy of incarceration—that is, criminals and defendants.
? Ayoub responded to our query regarding which group the committee is connected to by stating that it is an independent, volunteer, civic committee, neither connected to any Kurdish, Arab, or other political entity, inside or outside of Syria. It functions as a human rights committee committed to safeguarding public liberties and human rights in Syria generally and in the Kurdish areas especially.
In line with all human rights committees and organizations spread around Syria and the globe, it tracks all abuses of human rights—past and present—in view of international documents. As a committee, we record all infractions; we also record them personally.
In terms of their successes, the Kurdish human rights activist claimed to have acquired 500 million euros from overseas and allocated them for the health sector. He said that national hospitals in Derik, Qamishli, and Hasakah were constructed by their group. He expressed his sorrow that nobody, including members of the Kurdish movement, have highlighted this accomplishment of their committee. Still, as the human rights committee, they saw themselves as the fifth estate, tending to the human conscience.
Ayoub claims that their goal is not to pressure anyone but rather to offer recommendations, whether to the PYD or the National Council, based just on opinion.
Head of the Human Rights Committee (MAF), Mohammed Ayoub ended his interview with Kurdistan Street News Network with regard to their most significant work projects concerning Kurdish rights saying…
First, observe and record the elements and realities of discrimination and then publish them extensively, therefore exposing the chauvinistic practices regarding our Kurdish people in Syria. Work toward constitutional recognition of their existence and enjoyment of their national rights, then resolve the Kurdish issue by a fair and democratic settlement.
Restore the citizenship of the “hidden” (Maktoum) Izu, who were deprived of it in the 1962 census, therefore paying everyone for the moral and material losses they had endured over fifty years. Protect the Kurdish language and cultural identity, oppose the policy of Arabization, pay required and appropriate attention to educational and societal aspects, demand official recognition of Nowruz as a national holiday for all Syrians, and defend the Kurdish movement in all spheres at home and abroad.