|
405 Turkish soldiers cleared of rape and
torture of Kurdish woman 20.9.2006
|
|
|
|
ANKARA, September
20 ,-- A Turkish court has cleared 405 soldiers of
the torture and rape of a Kurdish woman in custody
in a controversial case dating back more than a
decade ago, a lawyer for the plaintiff said on
Wednesday.
The court ruled Monday there was no evidence to
determine which of the defendants had actually
committed the alleged crimes, attorney Reyhan
Yalcindag told AFP.
The 34-year-old woman, known only as S.E., claimed
she was blindfolded when she was tortured and raped,
leading the prosecution to charge all 405 soldiers
who served during that period in two paramilitary
stations in the southeastern province of Mardin
where she claims she was abused in the early 1990s.
‘We will appeal the ruling and if we fail again, we
will take the case to the European Court of Human
Rights,’ Yalcindag said.
S.E. says she was tortured and raped by paramilitary
troops each time she was detained in November 1993
and in March and August 1994, a period of intense
fighting in the region between separatist Kurdish
rebels and the army.
In the last incident, she lost consciousness and
came to after nine days inhospital.
The trial, which started in October 2003, was moved
from Mardin to the northern town of Sungurlu on
security grounds.
Turkish security forces have faced widespread
accusations of human rights abuses in their fight
against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK),
blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara and much
of the international community, which took up arms
for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast in
1984.
But the authorities have been reluctant to look into
such cases andconvictions of security personnel for
torture or other abuses have been rare.
Cases of rights abuses are seen as a test for
Turkey’s commitment to respect democratic norms in
its quest to join the European Union.
The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention
of Torture said in a report earlier this month that
abuse of prisoners in Turkey remained a problem,
even though it was ‘on the decline.’
S.E., who was never officially charged with any
crime, suffered severe psychological problems and
moved to live in western Turkey. From there she
managed to win asylum in Germany, where she is still
living, in the northwestern town of Bochum.
AFP
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan".
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 