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Turkey: Kurdish mayor risks jail over
rebel funeral
30.5.2006
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DIYARBAKIR,
Kurdistan-Turkey, May 30 (Reuters) - A Turkish mayor
could face a jail sentence of up to one year for
sending a city ambulance to transport the body of a
Kurdish rebel killed in a clash with troops,
according to a prosecutor's indictment.
The indictment, details of which were obtained by
Reuters on Tuesday, said the use of the ambulance
had incurred losses of 16.8 lira ($11) for the city
council in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey's
mainly Kurdish southeast.
The prosecutor sought a prison sentence of up to one
year for Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir and three
other municipal officials for improper use of public
vehicles under Turkey's transportation laws.
The law does not specify what improper use of a
public vehicle is, but the Interior Ministry has
previously said the dead bodies of rebel fighters
must not be transported by municipal ambulances. |
Osman Baydemir, The Kurdish mayor Diyarbakir in
southeastern Turkey (Kurdistan-Turkey) |
Court officials said they expected the trial of the
four officials to begin within a month.
Baydemir defended himself in comments to reporters
on Tuesday, saying that he had acted in line with
the law.
"It is not our job to investigate the identity of
the person who has died. This is a duty of
humanity," he said.
"God willing we won't, but if we do face such a
request again we will fulfil our legal, humane and
moral responsibility."
Baydemir is a senior official in the Democratic
Society Party (DTP), which favours more autonomy and
cultural rights for Turkey's Kurdish minority but
which is suspected by Ankara of harbouring
separatist ambitions and having ties with the
rebels.
The dead rebel was one of two killed in a firefight
with Turkish security forces in a rural area of
Mardin province, south of Diyarbakir, on March 25,
2005. He was then transported in a municipal
ambulance to the southeastern city of Gaziantep.
Media reports at the time said thousands of people
gathered outside the dead man's house in Gaziantep
and chanted slogans in support of jailed Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The PKK took up arms against the state in 1984 in a
bid to force the creation of a Kurdish homeland in
the southeast and more than 30,000 people have been
killed in the conflict.
The violence ebbed in 1999 after Ocalan was
captured, but fighting has flared up again in the
last two years.
Reuters
Southeastern Turkey: North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey)
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