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: 10 November 1995.         +
+------------------------------------------------------+

EXTERNAL                                             AI Index: EUR 44/97/95

UA 225/95   Fear of "disappearance" / Fear of torture     22 September 1995

TURKEY            Hamza Guneri, aged 36


On 11 September 1995, plainclothes police came to the home of Hamza Guneri
in Agri, detained him in front of his wife and three children, and took him
away.

On 12 September his sister-in-law Guvercin Guneri went to the Anti-Terror
Branch of Agri Police Headquarters to make inquiries as to his whereabouts.
His detention was then acknowledged.

However, on 15 September, police attached to the Anti-Terror Branch came to
Hamza Guneri's home and told his family that he had escaped from custody.
When the Human Rights Association branch in Agri inquired with the Anti-
Terror Branch of Agri Police Headquarters, they were told the same thing.

Amnesty International is seriously concerned for Hamza Guneri's safety.
His family, having had no news of him since his detention, fear that he has
"disappeared" in police custody, given that an escape from Anti-Terror
Branch custody is virtually unheard of.

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, 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.

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 in 1995 so far.

+-----------------------------------------------------------+
+ 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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