Turks Attack Kurdish Prisoners; Mor

[stk at schism.antenna.nl]

------------------------------ forwarded message -----------------------------
akin at kurdish.org (AKIN) writes:

American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN)                   September 25, 1996
Press Release # 15                                     Telephone: (202) 483.6444

                               Turks Attack Kurdish Prisoners;
                               More Than A Dozen Is Killed!

        A statement issued, today, by the President of Human Rights
Association of Diyarbakir, Mahmut Sakar, notes that ominous developments
are taking place in Diyarbakir, the largest Kurdish city in the Turkish
controlled Kurdistan. "13 Kurdish prisoners have died as a result of
attacks by the Turkish security forces in the city's prison."  A Reuter
report filed from Diyarbakir, today, notes that a hospital official
confirmed the death of eleven individuals.  Many of the dead had suffered
injuries to their heads.
        The statement of the Human Rights of Association of Diyarbakir
notes that eight of the killed were identified as: "Edip Donekci, Nihat
Cakmak, Ekrem Perisan, Ridvan Bulut, Hakki Tekin, Ahmet Celik, Mehmet S.
Gumus.  and Cemal Cam."
        Listed in critical condition were twelve other prisoners who were
taken to the hospital for treatments: "Ramazan Nazber, Mehmet Aslan, Yasin
Alevcan, Ramazan Korkar, Mehmet Batuge, Mehmet E. Izra, Iskan Osal, Kenan
Acar, Abdullah Eflatun Hakki Bozkus, Bedri Bozkus and Emin Mizrak."
        The statement goes on to add that in the last ten days, the dead
(and often mutilated) bodies of "... nine (9) people have been found in the
city streets.  These individuals were reported missing in our office.  The
invariable story of their loved ones was that the plain clothes Turkish
police officers came to the house, arrested these individuals and later
claimed that they knew nothing of them. "
        The official Ankara has made some "contradictory" remarks about the
origins of the Diyarbakir prison carnage says, Mr. Sakar.   "One version of
the events is that some Kurdish prisoners were harassing a group of inmates
who were informers.  The prison officials in Diyarbakir, says the official
statement, asked the Justice Department for the transfer of these
individuals.  Apparently, as this transfer was taking place, this deadly
altercation took place."
        "The missing link in this argument is that the transfers are not
automatically granted.  In the past, these same requests were often denied
because of lack of funds.  One can not help but ask the question why this
request was accepted so quickly and why so much force was used to put down
the altercation."
        "We feel that this is nothing but part of a larger policy to
instill fear in the population.  We call on the friends of human family to
condemn this brutality and send observers to the region to investigate this
deadly attack on the defenseless prisoners."
        These mass killings illustrate the deterioration of the human
rights situation in Turkey.  This was also noted, on September 19, 1996, by
the European Parliament's decision to block "hundreds of millions of
dollars of aid to Ankara for reneging on promises to improve its human
rights record."  We ask that you join the European parliamentarians by
condemning this particular act of brutality and the overall Turkish
aggression toward the Kurds.


----
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Washington, DC 20008-1522

Tel: (202) 483-6444
Fax: (202) 483-6476
E-mail: akin at kurdish.org
Home Page: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~akin
----

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Solidaritygroup Turkey-Kurdistan
Memberorganisation of Foundation Initiativegroup Kurdistan
P.O. Box 85306
3508 AH Utrecht
The Netherlands
stk at schism.antenna.nl
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