Turkey: IHD protests conditions in prisons

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

15 December,1998, Copyright © Turkish Daily News 

IHD protests conditions in prisons 

    In a press release, the Human Rights Association states that
    instances of maltreatment behind the walls of prisons have marked
    the agenda of Turkey for many years



Ankara - Turkish Daily News 

Members of the Human Rights Association (IHD) and others gathered in
front of the Ankara Central Closed Prison on Monday as part of
activities organized for Human Rights Week.

In a press release issued by the IHD, it was stated that instances of
maltreatment behind the walls of prisons have marked the agenda of
Turkey for many years. The press release went on to give figures of
the current situation of prisons in Turkey. The statement said there
are currently 637 prisons with a total of 63,472 prisoners (including
2,058 children) and human rights violations are continuing, including
violations of prisoners' legal rights and oppressive measures directed
at the relatives of the prisoners. "Today, those under arrest and
prisoners are not provided with humane living conditions, which are
among everyone's basic rights. Basic needs like shelter, heating,
nutrition and clean conditions are either insufficient or
nonexistent."

The statement also asserted that threats to people's lives were
continuing in prisons, and many prisoners were either dying or were
brutally injured. "Since the beginning of 1998, 399 prisoners were
either injured or became handicapped because of these reasons," the
statement asserted.

The statement also listed what it asserts has become routine practice
in prisons: arbitrary limitations on people's right to communicate or
see guests during the visiting hours; letters that are never delivered
to whom they are addressed; attitudes that humiliate the families and
even the lawyers of prisoners; and the denial of prisoners' requests
for prison transfers for arbitrary reasons. The IHD went on to assert
that as a result of this approach, 63 people have died in prisons
after being attacked by security officials in prisons, the poor
conditions present in prisons and because of withheld medical
treatment.

The statement also stated that prisons in Turkey are still being
administrated by issued circulars, rather than by established rules
and regulations, engendering an arbitrariness in the way in which
prisons are run. The statement said: "Some of the current regulations
cause unequal treatment between criminals of conscience and ordinary
criminals." The IHD further asserted that no legal proceedings were
underway against administrators and security officers in prisons
responsible for many violations.

The IHD ended its statement calling for a general amnesty that would
be guided by universal human rights and principals of law. The IHD
indicated that in Turkey, where there are severe crises in the
structure and the functioning of the legislative, judiciary, and the
executive organs, general amnesty was a "right" and a "necessity,"
rather than a "favor."


-- 
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