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Turkey: Recent human rights violations
must be investigated
13.4.2006
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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: EUR 44/005/2006 (Public), News Service No:
093, 12 April 2006
Turkey: Recent human rights violations must be
investigated
Amnesty International last week called on the
Turkish government to investigate all allegations of
human rights violations arising in the context of
recent violent protests in the south-east of the
country and spreading through sporadic incidents to
Istanbul.
After the funerals in Diyarbakir on 28 March of four
members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who
had been killed by the security forces,
demonstrations escalated into violent protests
during which demonstrators threw stones and Molotov
cocktails, and damaged property. Four individuals
were shot dead by the security forces. In subsequent
days, during further violent demonstrations in
Diyarbakir and other towns in the region including
Batman, Kiziltepe, Siirt and Nusaybin, the number of
civilians killed rose to 13, at least four of them
children. According to the available autopsy reports
most of them died as a result of gunshot wounds.
Many demonstrators and law enforcement officials
were injured. On 2 April, in Istanbul, three women
were crushed to death by a bus which was set alight
following a Molotov cocktail attack allegedly
perpetrated by demonstrators. During these
incidents, hundreds of demonstrators, including
children, were detained. The majority of detainees
in Diyarbakir alleged that they were subjected to
ill-treatment on apprehension, and torture or other
ill-treatment once in custody.
In its letter to the Turkish Minister of Justice,
Amnesty International acknowledged the difficulties
faced by law enforcement officials while policing
violent demonstrations and unconditionally condemned
the human rights abuses committed by demonstrators
which resulted in serious injury to civilians and
law enforcement officers.
At the same time the organization called on the
Turkish authorities to investigate all allegations
of excessive use of force resulting in deaths of
demonstrators by law enforcement officials during
the policing of violent demonstrations, and to
ensure that, should such allegations prove to be
true, the perpetrators be brought to justice. It
also called on them to ensure that the provisions of
the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials
and the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and
Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials are upheld in
the policing of all demonstrations, whether violent
or not.
In light of the reported decline in the use of
torture in recent years, especially in the
Diyarbakir region, Amnesty International was
particularly disturbed at allegations of torture or
ill-treatment of detainees, including beatings,
death threats and being stripped naked and sprayed
with cold water. There were also reports of
irregular detention procedures, and of lawyers’
access to detainees being barred – in one case by
force – by law enforcement officials.
Amnesty International called on the Turkish
authorities, in the context of their own “zero
tolerance” policy towards torture, to fulfil
Turkey’s international legal obligations as a State
Party to the European Convention for the Protection
of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the UN
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment by carrying out
prompt, impartial and thorough investigations into
all such complaints and to bring their alleged
perpetrators to justice.
At the time that Amnesty International wrote to the
authorities, 57 of the 91 minors detained during the
events in Diyarbakir remained in prison pending
trial. Some of them alleged ill-treatment or torture
in custody, and their lawyers suggest that they were
also subjected to irregular detention procedures.
Amnesty International noted that some of the minors
could face charges under articles of the Turkish
Penal Code which fall under the jurisdiction of the
Anti-Terror Law, and that in the case of at least
one possible charge the penalty is life
imprisonment.
Amnesty International called on the Turkish
authorities to extend to all children remanded to
prison the particular protection they are afforded
by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to
which Turkey is a State Party by ensuring prompt,
thorough and impartial investigations into the
allegations of ill-treatment or torture in police
custody, releasing children from prison at the
earliest opportunity unless their prolonged
detention could be adequately justified, and
ensuring that no person below the age of 18 would
face a sentence of life imprisonment without
possibility of release.
Amnesty International continues to monitor the human
rights situation in Turkey, particularly in the
south-east.
www.amnesty.org
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