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Rights activists confirm gross violations
in Turkey
13.10.2005
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The Human Rights Foundation and representatives
of the European Parliament reported rights
violations--especially the mutilation of
corpses--are occuring during military operations in
Southeastern Turkey due to a lack of oversight.
BIA (Ankara, Mardin, Van) -
Human Rights Foundation (IHD) representatives said
that the foundation is recieving reports of corpses
being mistreated and mutilated in military
operations in the southeast of Turkey. Hüseyin
Cangir of the IDF's Mardin office and Zeki Yüksel of
the IDF's Van office told Bianet of reports that had
reached them about body parts being cut from the
bodies of PKK militants killed in the course of
military operations. Mehdi Perinçek, the IHD
advocate responsible for this region, said that
these complaints were similar to many others that
had not yet been made concrete.
Richard Howitt, a British MEP and member of the
European Parliament's human rights subcommittee,
told the British newspaper The Guardian that he had
heard reports of "shocking" torture in Turkey on a
recent investigative trip. Foreign Ministry
spokesperson Namik Tan called these reports "silly
stories...completely the products of fantasy; they
have nothing to do with the truth. Nobody
trustworthy in Turkey can be heard saying such
things."
According to the Guardian report, recounted in
Hürriyet newspaper, Howitt said,
"What we heard was shocking. There were accounts of
soldiers cutting off people's ears and tearing out
their eyes if they were thought to be Kurdish
separatist sympathisers ... You can't hear these
things without being emotionally affected."
Alatas: this is a general practice
IHD General Director Yusuf Alatas, asked for his
view on these accusations, said that the abuse of
corpses was "a general practice." He added, "The
shape in which bodies are found will not be known.
Limbs are cut off or in pieces."
Cangir described the case of a crime in the spring
of 2004: "Meaz Resit Reso was killed in a skirmish
at Sirnak. There was no damage to his face in the
skirmish, but his ears and a part of his nose were
cut off. This is an announcement of a crime. We have
photographs. His family's claim is that he was
captured while wounded. We are not able to confirm
whether the cutting of his organs took place during
the skirmish, or afterwards." Cangir said there have
not been any developments whatsoever concerning the
crime. As for the reply to the queries that he had
written to the Military Police General Headquarters,
it claimed that Reso's ears and nose "had been cut
off by his friends."
Zeki Yüksel of the Van branch describes another case
that had come to the attention of the IHD, in which
the bodies of several dead PKK militants were found
with their throats and ears cut, along with already
being riddled with bullets. Yüksel said that a mass
grave containing an estimated 21 bodies was found in
Bitlis in 2000, and that many of the corpses were
headless. Explaining that the objection made to the
Bitlis Public Prosecutor's decision not to pursue
the crime in the Mus Criminal Court had been
ignored, Yüksel said they were thinking of taking
the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Lack of oversight
Alatas warned that military operations are closed to
independent oversight: "Neither human rights nor
internal rights rules are applied in battles and
skirmishes that take place in this region-because
the military operations are far from oversight.
Answers to questions of who was captured alive, who
was killed and why and how they died, are not
forthcoming. Because in this subject there is no
independent ability to oversee conduct during
conflict, all of the operations carry grave flaws."
"In general there is an agreement that the law pays
little attention to this. The perceptions of people
in the region are particularly disregarded."
He went on to say, "in areas of warfare, aid
organizations and the press are generally present.
They televise military operations. Here, there is
nothing of the sort. The media does not enter the
regions where these operations occur. They are far
from the eyes of both the country and the world.
Outside of the press releases of the General Staff,
no one knows anything. As long as there is no
oversight, they will feel completely free."
Alatas said that when the psychology of soldiers is
considered, the importance of oversight becomes
clear. "These sorts of environments are extremely
provocative. Think of the psychological condition of
a soldier whose friend is killed in a skirmish.
Without transparency and oversight, with such
psychological conditions anything can occur. Recall
the stories told by soldiers who have been
discharged from service in this region."
"The media must have access"
Alatas said that it was necessary for the press to
be more comfortable working in the region and for
civil oversight of military operations to be opened:
"The media must not be forbidden from the regions
where military operations are taking place. The
international press must also be able to send
reporters....It is necessary to open civil oversight
over all military operations. It is necessary to
listen to those who make claims and to research
their cases. Prosecutors must take action on cases
immediately, and it must be unacceptable for them to
denounce claims." Alatas, recalling that operations
take place in the context of the struggle against
terrorism, said "the laws of war are not in effect
there, so it is necessary that our internal laws be
preeminent. Oversight should exist and independent
civil society organizations should be able to take
part."
Alatas criticized the response of the Foreign
Ministry to the claims. "The Foreign Ministry
rejects the claims at one go, with a manner that
ignores the need for any research into this. Whereas
is it not necessary to investigate, to take
seriously what has been said by members of the
parliament that we want to take our place in? We
need to say, 'We will investigate, we will give an
answer.' The door of oversight is being closed from
the top like this."
Alatas pointed out that the areas in which military
operations are being done are "even more closed than
in Iraq." He said, "Even in Iraq the media can do
things. Furthermore, only the laws of war limit
occupations. As for Turkey, in the discourse of the
struggle against terror there are things that
disappear from sight. For example, the problem of
'if one was captured alive.' If you are looking with
the view 'do terrorists have rights', you do not
give the impression that we are carrying out the
struggle in a state of law." Alatas emphasized that
"the methods of the struggle against terror must be
within the law."
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