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ANKARA, Turkey - Two sisters of a slain Kurdish
guerrilla urged authorities yesterday to conduct
tests on what they said were two mass graves
containing headless bodies discovered in
southeastern Turkey to determine whether their
brother's body is among the remains.
Human-rights groups are also demanding an
investigation into the possibility the remains
belong to guerrillas who may have been caught alive
and later shot in the head and beheaded to hide
evidence of executions.
27 HEADLESS BODIES
Villagers discovered two mass graves in Bitlis
province holding the 27 headless bodies a year ago
after coming across soiled clothing, human-rights
groups said yesterday.
A third grave with 11 bodies was also discovered
near the town of Kulp in Diyarbakir last year. The
graves are believed to have been dug in the
mid-1990s, at the height of the brutal conflict
between the military and Kurdish guerrillas.
Legislators rushed to the region last year to
investigate the grave near Kulp, conceding the
remains appeared to be those of missing villagers.
Gen. Ilker Basbug, deputy head of the military,
denied any military involvement in the Kulp deaths,
saying claims against security forces in the
southeast were attempts to get compensation through
the European court or win support for the rebels.
Human-rights activists say nothing has been done
since and have threatened to take the sisters' case
to the Strasbourg, France-based European Court of
Human Rights.
"It has almost been a year and nothing has been
done," said Nazime Avras, sister of Mehmet Sabri
Avras, a missing militant. "We just want a proper
grave, we're not asking for much."
The family was told Mehmet Sabri Avras, a member of
the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, was killed in
fighting between the rebels and the military in
Bitlis in 1995. His body was never handed over to
the family, the sisters said.
Human-rights groups say remains from the graves were
handed over to prosecutors shortly after they were
found but no autopsies or DNA tests have been
conducted, said Nedim Tas, the head of THY-DER, an
organization that supports families of prisoners.
DECAPITATED TO HIDE
SHOOTINGS
The graves also contained bodies with no heads,
leading to suspicion that the militants were
executed with a gunshot to the head and later
decapitated to hide the shootings, said Kazim Genc,
head of the human-rights organization Pir Sultan
Abdal.
Some 37,000 people have died in the conflict between
the rebels and the military, which began in 1984.
The rebels have recently stepped up attacks,
detonating remote-controlled bombs on train tracks
and roads used by the military.
AP
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