AI: Turkey: Irresponsibility of authorities leads to armed attack

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
* International * AI INDEX: EUR 34/21/98 12 MAY 1998

Turkey: Irresponsibility of authorities leads to armed attack on President
of Human Rights Association

By persistently attempting to discredit the Turkish Human Rights
Association (HRA), the Turkish authorities created the climate for today's
shooting of Akin Birdal, President of the HRA, Amnesty International said
today.

     "The Turkish authorities have consistently failed to investigate or
condemn earlier fatal attacks on officials of the Association," the
organization said.

     "In fact, successive Turkish governments have remained mute when such
attacks took place, while the Foreign Ministry endeavoured to take every
opportunity to undermine the HRA
-- and Akin Birdal in particular. It appears that this may have been
official policy."

     Two unidentified assailants burst into the offices of the Association
in Akara this morning and opened fire on Mr Birdal. He suffered six bullet
wounds and is in a critical condition in hospital.

     It appears that this unprovoked attack is the result of the Turkish
authorities'irresponsible handling of alleged confessions by Semdin Sakik,
a former military commander of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) who
recently defected to the Kurdish Democratic Party/Iraq (KDP/Iraq) of Masoud
 Barzani, and was subsequently abducted by the Turkish security forces in
Northern Iraq and brought back across the border. The Turkish press then
published confessions alleged to have been made by Semdin Sakik, in which
numerous prominent personalities critical of the government were implicated
 as having actively supported the PKK. Akin Birdal was one of the targets
of such accusations.

     More than 10 officials of the HRA have been killed since 1991. In most
 cases, the assailants were unidentified, although the attacks took place
at the same time as intense police harassment, coinciding with a succession
 of prosecutions of the organization for its legitimate activities. Muhsin
Melik, founder of the Sanliurfa branch of the HRA, was able to identify his
 attackers as police officers before he died of his wounds on 2 June 1994.

     "It appears that such murders of HRA members were not properly
investigated, and in no cases was the HRA satisfied that the true
perpetrators had been arrested -- indeed, it appeared that perpetrators
were being protected," Amnesty International said.

     The text of what was apparently a secret Interior Ministry circular in
 January 1997 referred to human rights groups as being used by the PKK, and
 recommended that local Governors, Gendarmerie General Command and Police
Headquarters should "take measures to
 eliminate the impression of
credibility" of people who "incite the public". The uncorroborated
allegations attributed to Semdin Sakik were given enormous publicity -- in
direct breach of the normal practice of public prosecutors who have the
right to keep preliminary investigation secret.

     The bitter conflict between government forces and the PKK in southeast
 Turkey has claimed more than 28,000 lives since 1984.  In this
highly-charged context, government silence in the face of such gross
allegations was irresponsible and has given licence to the attackers.

     "It is time that the Turkish Government, at its highest levels,
condemns such attacks. It should publicly acknowledge the important
contribution made by the HRA and other human rights organizations, and
ensure that the perpetrators of this attack are apprehended and brought to
justice," Amnesty International said.

     In February this year an Amnesty International delegate observed a
hearing at Ankara State Security Court in one of the many prosecutions
faced by Akin Birdal for exercising his right to freedom of expression.
ENDS...

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