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ANKARA, Nov 29 (AFP) - The Turkish parliament
launched an investigation Monday into allegations
that a 12-year-old Kurdish boy and his father were
killed by security forces who either mistook them
for Kurdish rebels or shot them deliberately.
Authorities said after the November 21 incident in
the southeastern province of Mardin that two armed
"terrorists" plotting attacks on government targets
were killed in a shoot-out with security forces
during an operation against the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK).
A human rights group that probed the incident
concluded that Ahmet Kaymaz, 34, and his son Ugur
were unlikley to have used weapons against the
police, and their killing outside their home in the
town of Kiziltepe was either a blunder or an
extra-judicial killing by security forces.
"Such incidents have not taken place for a long time
in the region. We will investigate the incident in
detail," member of parliament Huseyin Guler told
reporters before he flew to Mardin along with a
fellow lawmaker.
The two deputies, members of the parliament's human
rights commission, will draw up a report on their
findings.
Respect for human rights has become a key concern
for Turkey as the country's bid to join the European
Union enters a crucial stage.
Extra-judicial killings were frequent in
southeastern Turkey in the 1990s, which saw bloody
clashes between separatist Kurdish rebels and
government forces in the PKK's 15-year campaign for
self-rule in the region.
According to the Human Rights Association report,
Kaymaz and his son were shot dead while they were
carrying blankets to Kaymaz's truck, parked outside
their house.
The autopsy found 13 bullets in the body of Ugur
Kaymaz and eight in the body of his father.
A neighbor who was asked by police to identify Ugur
Kaymaz immediately after the incident said the boy
was lying in a pool of blood near the truck and that
his right hand was resting "awkwardly" on a rifle.
Police looked amazed when they were told the boy was
a primary school pupil and asked the neighbor to
check the body once again, the report said.
The prosecutor handling the case told the
association that the police had been watching
Kaymaz's house for some time on suspicion that armed
PKK rebels had taken refuge there, but were also
aware that a family with children was also living in
the house.
She insisted that the security forces were fired on
when they ordered the two to stop and that the
deaths occurred in the ensuing shoot-out.
11/29/2004 16:55 GMT - AFP
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