AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT ON TUR

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

From: tabe at newsdesk.aps.nl
Subject: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT ON TURKEY
Reply-To: kurdeng at aps.nl


Amnesty International
International Secretariat
1 Easton Street
London WC1X 8DJ
United Kingdom

14 January 1994

         TURKEY: SECURITY OFFENSIVE CLOAKED BY INFORMATION BLACKOUT -
          TORTURE, "DISAPPEARANCE" AND EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTION IN THE
                              SOUTHEAST PROVINCE

Amnesty International is gravely concerned that measures introduced by the
Turkish Government in November 1993 are contributing to the appalling events
currently taking place in Turkey.  On 4 November 1993 the the Turkish Prime
Minister Tansu"iller announced on TRT (Turkish Radio and Television) a series
of measures, including intensified security operations, intended to deliver a
fatal blow to Kurdish separatism and a propaganda offensive both "inside and
outside the country".

     Reports indicate that the country's southeastern provinces and their
mainly Kurdish population are the target of a collaborative effort by the
government, the police and armed forces, and prosecutors and the courts to
crush the illegal armed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) together with all
manifestations of Kurdish separatism.

     It appears that the operations, which are of an unprecedented ferocity,
have been timed in anticipation of the local elections scheduled for 27 March.
It is possible that further electoral successes will then be achieved by the
pro-Kurdish Democracy Party (DEP). Since many of DEP's stated aims echo those
of the PKK, it is possible the authorities fear a big vote for DEP candidates
would be perceived as a popular endorsement for the PKK.

     The military element of the offensive includes security raids on
settlements which refuse to participate in the village guard system, a civil
defence corps armed and paid by the government to fight the PKK guerrillas.
Villagers are often reluctant to become village guards, because this would
expose them to attacks by the PKK.  However, refusal to participate means that
the village will be subject to frequent security raids. There is considerable
evidence that these raids involve flagrant human rights violations against the
area's mainly Kurdish population.

     The Prime Minister called for a major reinforcement of the Special Teams,
which are a heavily armed, highly mobile force attached to the police. The
Special Teams are trained for close combat with guerrillas, but also
participate in operations against villages, often masked, and have allegedly
been involved in human rights violations, including extrajudicial execution.
The Prime Minister stated that the new Special Team recruits would be trained
to use methods resembling those of the guerrillas, although, as Amnesty
International has reported in the past, the methods of PKK guerrillas have
included the committing of atrocities. The first group of reinforcements went
into action at the beginning of January.

     During raids, the village inhabitants are usually assembled and subjected
to threats, insults, destruction of property and livestock, and in many cases
torture. Men, and sometimes women and children too, are made to stand or lie
down, often in subzero conditions, while searches are carried out.  In recent
months it appears to have been routine for all or most of the houses to be
burned in what amounts to forcible eviction. There have also been many reports
of extrajudicial executions and "disappearances".

     A typical operation is that which has been taking place into the area
west of Eruh in Siirt province since 6 January. Following clashes between
security forces and guerrillas, gendarmerie, village guards and Special Teams
have raided the villages of Taskonak, Demirbogaz, Geliosman, etinkaya, elik
and Payamli. According to reports from villagers who contacted Amnesty
International, Hizni Yilmaz, brother of the head man of Taskonak, was taken
from a cave in the village where he had taken refuge, summarily shot and his
body thrown into the flames of a burning building.  Mumtaz Kaar (f), a member
of a nomad group tending flocks in the Taskonak district, reportedly attempted
to intervene while the gendarmes were killing her animals, and was shot dead.
A local shepherd, Mehmet Sait Timurtas was also killed in similar
circumstances.

     "Disappearances" are now regularly reported in the context of such
operations. Following a raid on 23 November on the village of Agilli (Kurdish
name: Birik), near Bismil in Diyarbakir province, in which villagers were
beaten and one shot dead, 16 villagers were detained and taken to the local
gendarmerie headquarters for interrogation. zeyir Kurt, one of those taken,
was never seen again and the authorities deny holding him.  Ahmet akici
"disappeared" reportedly after being detained in an operation at his village
of itlibahe, near Hazro, in Diyarbakir province on 8 November 1993. Huseyin
Ugurlu of the town of Altinova, near Mus, father of eight children who was
beaten severely by gendarmerie, in front of dozens of townspeople, and then
taken away for interrogation on 18 November 1993. Exhaustive efforts by his
family have failed to establish his whereabouts, and it is feared that he may
have died under torture.

     The freedom of the press to report on such atrocities has been under
constant attack from the government. Journalists have to face torture,
detention, prosecution and the confiscation of journals.  zgr Gndem (Free
Agenda) is almost the only newspaper which has consistently reported human
rights violations in the State of Emergency provinces in the southeast. During
the 18 months of its existence, six of the newspaper's journalists have been
killed in circumstances that suggest security force involvement, and a female
staff journalist has "disappeared" in Istanbul. Orders for the temporary
closure of zgr Gndem on the grounds that it had published "separatist
propaganda" were passed by Istanbul State Security Court in December and
January but have not yet been confirmed by the Appeal Court. Any person who
advocates separatism, even when they have in no way advocated violence may
face prosecution under Article 8 of the Anti-Terror Law resulting in prison
sentences of two to five years.

     Dozens of the newspaper's staff were detained in December and the General
Publishing Manager Fahri Ferda etin alleges that while he was held in
incommunicado detention at Istanbul Police Headquarters he was suspended by
the arms, and given electric shocks to his sexual organs and feet, that his
testicles were twisted and that he was hosed with ice-cold water. The Adana
correspondent Haci etinkaya made similar allegations. Ten members of the
newspaper's Diyarbakir staff were rearrested on 12 January - including Necmiye
Aslanoglu who reported that, during detention in November, she had been
stripped of her clothes and beaten, dragged by the hair and suspended by the
arms while she was given electric shocks through her navel and toes during
November.

     A further element of the propaganda offensive appears to be an attempt to
inhibit the work of defence lawyers and human rights activists. Sixteen
lawyers were detained in November and interrogated while being held
incommunicado for four weeks in Diyarbakir Gendarmerie Headquarters. The
lawyer Meral Danis Bestas, secretary of the Diyarbakir Branch of the Turkish
Human Rights Association (HRA), reported that during interrogation she was
slapped, kicked, subjected to crude sexual insults, stripped of her clothes
and hosed with freezing cold water. Tahir Eli, a lawyer in Cizre who has
represented local villagers in numerous official complaints concerning human
rights violations, was also detained. He reported that the police told him
that if he continued to report human rights violations and research the
emptying of villages and "disappearances" he would be killed.  He reported
that he was stripped naked and that his testicles were twisted in Cizre Police
Headquarters and later in Diyarbakir Gendarmerie Headquarters; another lawyer
was present when he was being hosed for several hours with cold water. Seven
of the lawyers were formally arrested for assisting the PKK, and possession of
forbidden publications. Amnesty International, which is investigating the
circumstances of their arrest, believes that the true reason for their
imprisonment may be their activities as defence counsel and their work on
human rights.

     Many human rights activists have fled the southeast after constant
intimidation, threats, and killings of members and officials of the Human
Rights Association (HRA). Only one of the 13 HRA branches in the area are
working at full strength.

     Amnesty International is concerned that the drastic measures of the
Turkish authorities' propaganda offensive are designed to achieve a blackout
on information from the Emergency Region, so that security forces can pursue
their activities uninhibited by scrutiny from lawyers, journalists and human
rights workers.


 * Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0)