AI: Turkey bulletin

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

------------ Forwarded from : Ray Mitchell <rmitchellai at gn.apc.org> ------------

+------------------------------------------------------+
+     AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL URGENT ACTION BULLETIN     +
+     Electronic distribution authorised               +
+     This bulletin expires: 16 November 1995.         +
+------------------------------------------------------+

EXTERNAL                                            AI Index: EUR 44/112/95

EXTRA 120/95            Fear of torture                     16 October 1995

TURKEY            Burhan Mutlu, a Kurd aged 34, father of two
                  plus two others, names not yet known


Burhan Mutlu and two other men have been held in incommunicado detention in
Istanbul since 13 October 1995. It is feared that they are being
interrogated under torture, presumably at the Anti-Terror Branch of
Istanbul Police Headquarters.

According to eye witnesses, a large number of plainclothes police officers
from the Anti-Terror Branch arrived at the "Girne" caf=E9 in the =DCsk=FCdar
district of Istanbul at around 5pm on 13 October. They detained Burhan
Mutlu, a Kurd from Karako=E7an who has been living in Istanbul for six or
seven years, and two other men and took them away in a car. Reportedly,
Burhan Mutlu's wife, who has been making inquiries as to her husband's
whereabouts, was told informally at Istanbul Police Headquarters in Aksaray
that he was being held there. Burhan Mutlu is said to have had contacts
with HADEP (People's Democracy Party), a legal political party with a
predominantly Kurdish membership which works for the civil and political
rights of the Kurdish minority.  In recent years, more than 100 officials
and members of HADEP and its two predecessor parties DEP and HEP have been
killed in unclarified circumstances, including a member of parliament.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

People suspected of offences under the Anti-Terror Law can be held in
police custody without access to family, friends or legal counsel for up to
30 days in the 10 provinces under State of Emergency in the southeast and
for 15 days in the rest of Turkey. When not being interrogated, detainees
are held in cramped, airless and insanitary conditions. With no access to
the outside world they are at the mercy of their interrogators. Torture
methods include being stripped naked and blindfolded, hosing with
pressurized ice-cold water, hanging by the arms or wrists bound behind the
victim's back, electric shocks, beating the soles of the feet, death
threats and sexual assault.

Procedures laid down in the Turkish Criminal Procedure Code for the prompt
and proper registration of detainees, and for notification of their
families, are almost universally ignored. Lack of prompt registration and
notification is extremely distressing for the families of detainees, and
creates the conditions in which "disappearances" and torture can occur.

Any person suspected of supporting the PKK or any other illegal armed
organization is at serious risk of torture, "disappearance" or
extrajudicial execution. In 1994 there were more than 55 confirmed
"disappearances", and more than 400 people were killed in unclarified
circumstances. At least 20 cases of "disappearance" in police custody have
been reported in 1995 so far.

+-----------------------------------------------------------+
+ Supporters of Amnesty International around the world are  +
+ writing urgent appeals in response to the concerns        +
+ described above. If you would like to join with them in   +
+ this action or have any queries about the Urgent Action   +
+ network or Amnesty International in general, please       +
+ contact one of the following:                             +
+                                                           +
+      Ray Mitchell, rmitchellai at gn.apc.org (UK)            +
+      Scott Harrison, sharrison at igc.apc.org (USA)          +
+      Guido Gabriel, ggabriel at amnesty.cl.sub.de (Germany)  +
+      Marilyn McKim, aito at web.apc.org (Canada)             +
+      Michel Ehrlich, mehrlich at aibf.be (Belgium)           +
+-----------------------------------------------------------+







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