By Andrew Adamides
A KURDISH man was in a critical condition last night after setting himself ablaze during a protest outside the French embassy in Nicosia.
Jehad Shecko, 30, was listed in a critical condition with second and third degree burns to 80 per cent of his body.
The incident occurred as around 100 Kurds were attending a peaceful protest against attempts by a French judge to link PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) leader Abdullah Ocalan with an alleged extortion scheme in France.
At around 10.45 am, bystanders heard a woman scream, and then saw Shecko douse himself with a flammable liquid, believed to be petrol.
Shecko produced a lighter, but police managed to wrestle him to the ground and seize it from him.
They began to remove his petrol-soaked clothes, but the Kurd shook them off saying he would remove the clothes, and the “Long Live Kurdistan” banner he was wearing, himself.
But as he turned away to do so, the man produced a second lighter and set fire to his trouser leg, instantly going up in flames.
The incident took place before the eyes of Shecko’s wife and five-year-old son.
The fire brigade, police and other Kurds managed to smother the flames, hauling Shecko to his feet.
To the surprise of onlookers, he managed to get up and flashed a ‘V’ for victory sign before being rushed to the Makarios Hospital.
Two of those who helped put out the flames were also injured, but a police spokesman said their injuries were less serious.
Shecko, however, sustained second and third degree burns to 80 per cent of his body.
Nucan Derya, the Cyprus representative of the ERNK, the Liberation Front of Kurdistan – civilian arm of the PKK – told the Cyprus Mail that Shecko’s was an act of desperation:
“Despite strict instructions from the President (Ocalan) to stop such actions, civilians who can’t go to war psychologically feel that this is the only way they can show their commitment.”
Several Kurds across the world have set themselves on fire since the November 12 arrest of Ocalan in Rome, prompting the appeal to stop from the Kurdish leader. Italy has refused to extradite Ocalan to Turkey.
At an earlier protest outside the French embassy on Tuesday, another Kurd, Ebu Amad, had threatened to torch himself. Fellow demonstrators had thwarted him by taking his can of petrol away from him.
Derya said Amad had again tried – in vain – to set himself on fire twice yesterday.
Amad was identified as one of the two slightly injured in stepping in to save Shecko.
