AI: Turkey bulletin

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

------------ Forwarded from : Ray Mitchell <rmitchellai at gn.apc.org> ------------

+------------------------------------------------------+
+     AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL URGENT ACTION BULLETIN     +
+     Electronic distribution authorised               +
+     This bulletin expires: 18 October 1995.          +
+------------------------------------------------------+

EXTERNAL                                             AI Index: EUR 44/96/95

EXTRA 107/95      Fear of "disappearance" / Fear of torture18 September 1995

TURKEY            Serif Yilmaz, aged 15
                  Samil Yilmaz, his brother, aged 35

Amnesty International is concerned for the safety of brothers Serif and
Samil Yilmaz, who are being held in unacknowledged detention.

Serif Yilmaz, who is living in Istanbul with one of his brothers, was
visiting his mother in =C7evrecik village in the Kulludere district of Hizan=
,
province of Bitlis.  According to his mother, Muhbet Yilmaz, a team of
gendarmes (soldiers carrying out police duties in rural areas) and village
guards came to her house on 1 September 1995 and took the boy away.  When
she went to the Kulludere Gendarmerie Station to inquire about her son, it
was denied that he was being held.

One week later, on 7 September, Serif's elder brother Samil Yilmaz, living
in Van, was detained there and taken to Van Gendarmerie Station.  Again,
his detention was denied when the family made inquiries, despite the fact
that, as in the case of Serif, his detention had been witnessed.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

People suspected of offences under the Anti-Terror Law can be held in
police custody without access to family, friends or legal counsel for up to
30 days in the 10 provinces under State of Emergency, which include Bitlis
and Van provinces, and for 15 days in the rest of Turkey. When not being
interrogated, detainees are held in cramped, airless and insanitary
conditions. With no access to the outside world they are at the mercy of
their interrogators. Torture methods include being stripped naked and
blindfolded, hosing with pressurized ice-cold water, hanging by the arms or
wrists bound behind the victim's back, electric shocks, beating the soles
of the feet, death threats and sexual assault.

Procedures laid down in the Turkish Criminal Procedure Code for the prompt
and proper registration of detainees, and for notification of their
families, are almost universally ignored. Lack of prompt registration and
notification is not only extremely distressing for the families of
detainees, but also creates the conditions in which "disappearances" and
torture can occur.

After cases of "disappearance" in police custody began to provoke concern
among the general public, the General Director of Police Mehmet Agar
announced that a unit would be set up, as from 1 August, to track detained
persons.  However, Detention Monitoring Offices are currently only
operating in part of the country. In Diyarbakir or Mersin, for example, no
Detention Monitoring Office has yet been established. In Ankara, however, a
Monitoring Office has been set up with a public telephone number and staff.
A lawyer who applied to the office on several occasions in August to track
people lost in police detention told Amnesty International that the staff
at the office "try to be helpful, but unfortunately they seem to be denied
information by other branches of the police force - the Anti-Terror Branch
in particular".

Any person suspected of supporting the PKK or any other illegal armed
organization is at serious risk of torture, "disappearance" or
extrajudicial execution. In 1994 there were more than 55 confirmed
"disappearances", and more than 400 people were killed in unclarified
circumstances. At least 20 cases of "disappearance" in police custody have
been reported so far in 1995.

+-----------------------------------------------------------+
+ Supporters of Amnesty International around the world are  +
+ writing urgent appeals in response to the concerns        +
+ described above. If you would like to join with them in   +
+ this action or have any queries about the Urgent Action   +
+ network or Amnesty International in general, please       +
+ contact one of the following:                             +
+                                                           +
+      Ray Mitchell, rmitchellai at gn.apc.org (UK)            +
+      Scott Harrison, sharrison at igc.apc.org (USA)          +
+      Guido Gabriel, ggabriel at amnesty.cl.sub.de (Germany)  +
+      Marilyn McKim, aito at web.apc.org (Canada)             +
+      Michel Ehrlich, mehrlich at aibf.be (Belgium)           +
+-----------------------------------------------------------+




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