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Soldiers' bombing trial resumes in Turkey
5.5.2006
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VAN,
Kurdistan-Turkey, May 5, 2006 (AFP) - A court
here on Friday resumed hearing testimony from two
military men and a government-paid Kurdish informer
facing possible life sentences over a deadly bomb
attack allegedly aimed at creating unrest in the
mainly Kurdish southeast.
Gendarmerie sergeants Ali Kaya and Ozcan Ildeniz and
Veysel Ates -- a former member of the Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) described in the indictment as
having turned informer since 2004 -- are accused of
staging the November 9 bomb attack against a
bookstore in Semdinli, in Hakkari province.
The prosecution described the three as rogue
elements within the security forces targeting the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), whose
rebels have led a bloody campaign since 1984 for
Kurdish self-rule in the region.
They are charged with "committing acts aimed at
destroying the unity of the state and the integrity
of the country," in addition to murder and forming a
criminal organisation.
In Thursday's opening session in a tiny, packed
courtroom in this eastern city, Kaya denied any role
in the bombing and laid the blame on the PKK.
"We did not place any bombs," he said, insisting
that "there was no involvement of security bodies
such as the army, the police or the secret services
-- or of the mafia or criminal gangs."
In Friday's session, he answered questions from
lawyers representing the owner of the bookstore on
how gendarmerie intelligence units conducted covert
operations in the region.
Asked whether he had information on any of the
unsolved murders that were prevalent in the
southeast at the height of the PKK rebellion, Kaya
said: "No, I do not."
Thousands of people, mainly Kurdish dissidents, are
believed to have been summarily executed in the
region during a heavy military reponse to the PKK
campaign.
More than 37,000 people have been killed in the
fighting between the Turkish army and the PKK, with
both sides accused of gross human rights violations.
The court was expected to hear testimony from
Ildeniz and Ates later Friday.
The bombing of the bookstore owned by a former PKK
rebel killed one person and sparked deadly riots in
remote Hakkari, which abuts Iraq and Iran.
The prosecutor described the attack as an act of
provocation aiming to stir unrest among Kurds,
discredit the government and undermine Turkey's bid
to join the European Union.
Kaya, Ildeniz and Ates, who reportedly threw the
bomb, were nearly lynched by an angry mob at the
site of the blast.
Weapons, hand grenades, a sketch of the bookshop and
a list of names, including that of the shopowner,
were found in the car the three tried to flee in
after the explosion.
The Van trial is widely seen as a test for Ankara to
prove its commitment to the supremacy of the law and
shed light on rogue elements in the security forces,
accused of murder, extortion, kidnappings and drug
smuggling.
The prosecution had also called for an investigation
into the commander of the Turkish land froces,
General Yasar Buyukanit, for alleged illegalities in
combating the PKK during his term as a regional
commander in the southeast in the 1990s.
The army vehemently rejected the allegations and
urged the government to punish "those behind this
onslaught... aimed at eroding (the credibility of)
the Turkish armed forces."
The prosecutor who drew up the indictment was sacked
last month by a panel of his peers for having
exceeded the limits of his jurisdiction.
AFP
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