Perth Voice Interactive

AROUND 100 Perth Kurds—a quarter of the city’s estimated Kurdish population—marched through Perth’s CBD on Saturday to protest against Islamic State.

Joined by supporters, the marchers carried placards opposing IS’s oppression of Kurds in the northern Syrian town of Kobane.

IS militants have taken hundreds captive over the past year as part of a brutal campaign to take over predominantly Kurdish areas of northern and eastern Syria.

An international rights group reported that IS members tortured and abused captive Kurdish children earlier this year near Kobane, beating them with hoses and electric cables.

Perth Kurdish Community liaison Ismet Aslan says he knows many Kurds with family from Kobane: “ISIS are thugs,” Mr Aslan says. “Kobane is under siege at the moment and we want to raise awareness of what our fellow Kurds are going through. It’s everyone’s responsibility to tackle these ISIS thugs, they shouldn’t even belong to this world, all this beheading people and rampaging around—it’s disgusting.”

Another march is being organised for the near future.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK