Kurdish writer tortured and shot in the head for mocking leaders

Osman who was majoring in English language and literature was kidnapped in front of the college by unidentified gunmen in a white Hyundai van with a concealed number plate before being physically assaulted, according to eye witnesses. The Peshmerga or security forces, which are controlled by the Kurdish parties have been blamed for the crime by Osman's friends and family. Abdul Hamid of the Pesgmerga said the police in Mosul said "a body had been found with a college badge in his pocket" "The body, with hands and legs tied up, had been brutally tortured before being shot in the mouth" he said. The killing of a journalist is a rare event in the Kurdish region, where the authorities have sought to encourage business and oil and gas investments and where thousands of foreigners, including American citizens live. One of them, Peter Galbraith, who was sacked from his job as the number two US official in Afganistan, has extensive oil interests in the area Security forces have a reputation for assaulting journalists who criticize the corrupt patronage system encouraged by the two governing parties. "This work is beyond the capability of one person or one small group," read a statement issued on Thursday and signed by 75 Kurdish journalists, editors and intellectuals. "We believe the Kurdistan regional government and its security forces are responsible first and foremost and they are supposed to do everything in order to find this evil hand." According to a New York Times report from Erbil, Osman was abducted by men in a white minibus immediately after he was dropped off Tuesday morning by his brother Sardar opposite the main entrance of the liberal arts college of the University of Salahaddin. He was to have graduated from the university in June with a degree in English. Sardar Osman said his brother got out in front of the Fine Arts Institute, where at least half a dozen well-trained soldiers from the Zerevani unit of the Kurdish peshmerga guard the gate at all times. Students reported that Osman had been kidnapped and the the institute's dean, who came out and picked up his books and notebooks from the street. The family received a call on Wednesday informing them that Osman's body had been dumped outside the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan offices in Mosul, about 50 miles west of Erbil. Osman received a threat in April from a caller saying that he had "one week to leave Erbil or he would be killed." He had been writing for almost two years under the pseudonym Saro Zardasht for the Sweden-based Kurdistanpost, known for its satirical articles critical of the two governing parties and its leaders. Osman also started working five months ago for an Erbil-based magazine called Samal Post and contributed several articles to Hawlati, an independent newspaper based in the region's other main city, Sulaimaniya. Kurdish journalists have been harassed, threatened and physically assaulted by security forces. There were 357 such violations last year, according to the Kurdistan Syndicate of Journalists.