AI: TURKEY: PROMISES OF REFORM

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

Subject: Re: AI: TURKEY: PROMISES OF REFORM SO FAR UNFULFILLED

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News Service 177/95

AI INDEX: EUR 44/95/95
EMBARGOED UNTIL 21 SEPTEMBER 1995

TURKEY: PROMISES OF REFORM SO FAR UNFULFILLED

The Turkish Government has so far failed to enact the simple
and practical reforms needed to tackle its grave human rights
situation, Amnesty International said in a report released
today.

      The  European Parliament will be considering Turkey~s
human rights record when discussing the proposed customs
union in October this year. Turkey is therefore under very
intense scrutiny and under considerable pressure to enact
effective reforms. Amnesty International holds no position on
the question of the customs union, but hopes that the Turkish
Government will take the three steps which would signal real
determination to break with the past record of gross
violations. 

      "The human rights picture in Turkey has been
deteriorating rapidly over the past five years," Amnesty
International said.  "The Turkish authorities have the power,
resources and infrastructure to enact changes and make them
stick -- given the political will."

      There are three key reforms which, if implemented,
could signal the beginning of  a serious change in the human
rights picture in Turkey: 

      1. Abolition or reform of Article 8 of the Anti-Terror
Law (under which most prisoners of conscience are held) which
punishes ~separatist propaganda~ by up to five years~
imprisonment.

      2. Prompt access by all detainees in police custody to
legal counsel (as a safeguard against torture).

      3. Shortening of maximum police detention period so
that all detainees are brought ~promptly~ before a judge (as
a safeguard against torture and ~disappearance~).

      These simple and practical steps would help to bring
Turkey in line with international human rights instruments
ratified by Turkey. They would also fulfil the principal
recommendations of  intergovernmental organizations and
expert bodies of the United Nations and Council of Europe, as
well as Turkey~s own High Consultative Committee on Human
Rights.

      In the face of bitter public criticism, some members of
the government, as well as certain sectors  of  the business
community, have begun cautiously to acknowledge the extent of
torture, ~disappearance~ and extrajudicial execution. 
       In May 1995 a report prepared by the High Commission
for Human Rights (attached to the office of the Prime
Minister) found that police were ~systematically~
interrogating Turkish citizens under torture. Their
recommendations for halting the practice included the two key
safeguards against torture recommended by Amnesty
International. 

      The organization considers these courageous first steps
-- away from the traditional policy of blank denial-- to be a
positive sign and sincerely hopes that these initiatives will
now be supported by those with the power to effect change:
the Prime Minister, the Interior Minister and parliament. 

      A number of ministers have also roundly condemned
Article 8 of the Anti-Terror Law. Ninety-nine members of the
country~s literary and artistic elite are currently being
tried under Article 8 of the Anti-Terror Law for republishing
the writings of Turkey~s best-known writer Yasar Kemal in
which he describes widespread human rights violations in the
mainly Kurdish southeastern provinces. 

      Several  academics, journalists and human rights
defenders are now serving long prison sentences under Article
8 which outlaws ~separatist~ statements. Unfortunately,
government attempts to reform Article 8 are being opposed by
a group of parliamentary deputies, the President, and the
armed forces.

      In its report,  Amnesty International notes that the
number of deaths in custody as a result of torture, as  well
as those  due to ~disappearances~ and political killings for
the first eight months of 1995, while still very high, show
some reduction. 

      "These figures should be read with caution as it is too
early to say whether there is real improvement or just lack
of information," the organization said. "Turkish human rights
defenders are facing brutal intimidation and foreign human
rights monitors are being kept out -- Amnesty International~s
researchers have been deported and banned from the country." 

      If close observation by the European Union and other
intergovernmental organizations has indeed resulted in a
reduction, those bodies have a duty to maintain their
vigilance. 

      Amnesty International's new report also describes
continued abuses by armed opposition groups, including
alleged killings of prisoners and civilians -- among them
children-- by the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK)  and
"punishment" killings by DHKP/C (Revolutionary People's
Liberation Party/Front).

      The report strongly rejects the response to an earlier
Amnesty International report, by Ali Sapan, of the National
Liberation Front of Kurdistan (the popular front established
by the PKK), that "the number of people killed is very
limited". Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, which
the PKK claims to respect, explicitly forbids the ill-
treatment or killing of prisoners. 

      "For one civilian or prisoner to become a victim of
such deliberate killing would be one too many," Amnesty
International said. "In fact, the victims are numbered in
their hundreds and killings continue."
ENDS\

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---------------------------------------------
Should you require further information please refer to
Amnesty International's report: Turkey - Unfulfilled promise
of reform  (AI Index: EUR 44/87/95)


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