Torture in Turkey

[PeaceNet Middle East Team]

From: <pnmideast>
Subject: Torture in Turkey

Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 18:21:15 PST
From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
To: conf:ai.general, conf:hr.eurmideast, mlangley, pnmideast
Subject: Turkey: Widespread Torture

/* Written  7:00 am  Nov 11, 1992 by draskovi at usc.edu in
igc:soc.culture.eu */

	LONDON (UPI) -- Despite election pledges to take action
against human rights violations, Turkey's new government has
failed to prevent widespread torture and killings, often by
security forces, Amnesty International said Wednesday.
	``There has been too much talk and too little action on
the part of the Turkish authorities,'' the London-based
international human rights group said.
	``The new government made serious promises on the issue of
human rights, and in particular torture, but like previous
governments, it has done nothing to stop the practice.''
	Turkish Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel spoke out against
abuses of official power in an October 1991 election pledge, and
said in his administration ``the walls of all police stations will
be made of glass.  ''
	But in the nine months between the formation of the new
government and the writing of the report, there were at least
eight deaths in custody believed to have been a result of torture,
Amnesty said.
	Successive governments have sought to deflect
international criticism of Turkey by speaking out against human
rights abuses, but they have done nothing to stop the abuses, the
group said in a report released Wednesday, ``Turkey: Walls of
Glass.''
	``There has been no discernable decline in the stream of
allegations of torture reaching Amnesty International since the
formation of the new government,'' the group said.
	The independent Turkish Human Rights Foundation received
179 reports of torture of men, women and children in the first six
months of 1992 alone.
	Few of the victims who tried to press charges against
their torturers succeeded, as many of the torture techniques left
few visible injuries, or left injuries that disappeared during a
long period of police custody.
	Many torture victims or their relatives who attempted to
take legal action were subjected to threats from officials, the
group said.
	Political killings, many involving security forces, were
	common.  ``In southeast Turkey there were, during the
	summer and autumn of
1991, more than 50 alleged extrajudicial executions,'' Amnesty
said.  Many victims were singled out because they were believed to
be in contact with the opposition Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), or
involved in legal political opposition to the government.
	``In these killings, the victims, mostly villagers, were
taken from their homes, often in rural areas and shot by groups of
armed men, or possibly the same group, acting as a death squad,''
Amnesty said.
	In some cases, security forces randomly fired on
residential areas as ``retaliation'' for attacks by the PKK, the
group said.
	Amnesty condemned the killings and sharply criticized the
Turkish government for its apparent indifference to human rights
abuses, and called on government and opposition groups to abide by
international humanitarian standards.
	``It is time for the Turkish government to face up to its
responsibilities under international law and bring perpetrators of
human rights violations to justice,'' Amnesty said. ``Too many
people have suffered already.''