TURKEY: Hizbollah Access to State Arms Suspected

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

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POLITICS-TURKEY: Hizbollah Access to State Arms Suspected

   By Nadire Mater

ISTANBUL, Feb 17 (IPS) - Suspicions of weapon transfers made to 
the Islamist Hizbollah group, allegedly by security units, 
continues to grow as state property is located at the 
organisation's southeast hide-outs.

   Hand-grenades, AK-47 assault rifles, RPG-7 rocket launchers and 
rounds of ammunition, were reportedly recovered from a Hizbollah 
shelter in the southeast Gaziantep countryside last week.

   This has given strength to suspicions voiced earlier by 
journalists and politicians that the Turkish security may have 
tolerated and supported Hizbollah's alleged violence as part of 
'covert operations' against Kurdish rebels.  

   Suspicions have been further heightened by the large numbers of 
weapons reported to be missing from the local Batman military 
arsenal.

   Prime Minister, Bulent Ecevit, has expressed concern at the 
disappearance of hundreds of assault rifles, hand grenades and 
launchers. 

   "I am deeply worried that these weapons may have been leaked to 
the Hizbollah. I have appointed special investigators to the case. 
All will be clarified soon," he told journalists.

   Former governor of Batman Province, Salih Sarman, has said 
there is a definite possibility that "the weapons that were 
imported for a special 1,000 strong mixed counter-insurgency 
battallion of elite village guards and police may have been 
transferred to the Hizbollah, as well as to the PKK (Kurdish 
Worker Party)."

   Sarman is facing charges of having tolerated Hizbollah in order 
to counter balance PKK activity in the area during 1994-96.

   Around 70 000 pro-government local Kurdish tribesmen were 
reportedly recruited as members of the paramilitary since the 
beginning of 'emergency-case-rule' in 1987. 

   Forced to choose between joining the village guards or leaving 
their villages, many locals opted to join the village guard 
system. 

   Armed and paid by the government, the village guards salaries 
have provided a major resource for this most impoverished part of 
the country.

   Batman is known as the Hizbollah's major power-base, and the 
scene of hundreds of extra-judicial executions of PKK sympathisers 
by the organisation throughout the bloody conflict. 

   The recovery of the ammunition is further complicated by the 
fact that governors are not granted the right, by law, to import 
arms.

   However those government officials who could authorise such 
importations, such as former ministers of defence and interior, 
the head of the National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) and the 
governor of the emergency case area, have publicly denied any 
involvement.

   Sarman has also been accused of by-passing relevant customs 
procedures and importing arms and ammunition valued at over 560 
000 US Dollars. 

   He is also being taken to task for going against regulations 
and allowing the formation of a 'special mixed battallion' of 
village guards and special police teams.

   However the former governor says he was forced to do this since 
there was a 'lack of sufficient regular military deployment' in 
the area which, he says, faced 'massive PKK threat'.

   In his defence Sarman claims that he had sought the permission 
of former prime minister Tansu Ciller, who has also been accused 
of creating her own special intelligence group of Turkish 
security. "We placed the special battallion under the local 
gendarme command and all was arranged with the permission and 
knowledge of local and central authorities".

   "We imported weapons, valued at approximately 2,7 million US 
Dollars from China, Bulgaria and the US, on 16 different 
occasions," Sarman says. The list includes over 1,000 AK-47 
assault rifles, hundreds of bomb launchers,  RPG-7 rocket 
launchers and rockets, millions of rounds of ammunition, and other 
equipment.

   Ciller has said she "assumes the responsibility of having lent 
all necessary support to local counter insurgency efforts. 

   "However, I was not interested in specific arrangements. This 
was conducted according to the relevant procedures. My officials 
saw to that," she says.

   However, according to government documents the funds allocated 
to the 'special battallion' were drawn from the 'public housing 
budget' under the pretext of 'cottage building for the village- 
guards'.

   Sarman says; "When the government stepped down, the special 
support we had from Tansu Ciller vanished, and we disbanded the 
battallion and delivered the weapons to local gendarme command and 
other regular units."

   But special "Batman Battallion" recruits claim they are still 
on duty. "We are called the 'secret battallion of the state'," a 
village guard interviewed by CNN Turk, who spoke on condition of 
anonymity said. 

   "And we are still on duty. We are patrolling the countryside. 
We were specially selected and underwent special commando training 
during military service...," he told the CNN reporter.

   However he denied that the battalion may have delivered weapons 
to Hizbollah. "It is absolutely out of question." 

   However President Suleyman Demirel's recent statement that in 
order to combat terrorism 'you have to divert from the routine for 
the sake of the state's supreme interests,' has unleashed an angry 
response from critics, including junior coalition ANAP (Motherland 
Party) leader, Mesut Yilmaz.

   "The state cannot act like an irregular army. All units of 
state are bound to act within law and they are obliged to comply 
with the laws," Yilmaz said.

   "Even emergency-case measures themselves are bound by strict 
laws," he added.

   Political analyst Ismet Berkan of daily 'Radikal' is convinced 
that the alleged arms transfers to Hizbollah point to deep rooted 
corruption within the security forces.

   He says those who have been implicated in the Hizbollah case 
were also implicated in a similar incident in 1997, publicly known 
as 'Susurluk affair'.

   In a car accident in 1997, on the northwest Susurluk highway, a 
man, later referred to as an alleged assassin, and a top security 
official were killed while a village guard tribe-chief, a deputy 
from Tansu Cilller's True Path Party (DYP) was injured.

   All were reportedly carrying authentic documents and licenses 
to carry arms signed by then Interior Minister Mehmet Agar. 

   Subsequent investigations revealed that the weapons they were 
carrying were missing from the security arsenal. Ironically the 
weapons were on record as having been imported for the 'Batman 
Battallion'. 

   The prosecution case against Agar was, however, suspended in 
April last year when he regained parliamentary immunity after 
being elected the independent deputy from the Elazig province.

   "I have no doubt that a significant part of Hizbollah arsenal 
was once state-property. Both Hizbollah and the PKK have gained 
control on the village-guard's weapons and directed these at the 
state. 

   "What is amazing is that noone has yet been held accountable 
and seriously prosecuted for what is going on. In fact I am sure 
that the former governor will also only receive a minor 
administrative punishment and will be allowed to continue in 
office," he added.


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Pressagency Ozgurluk.Org
In solidarity with the Peoples Liberationstruggle in Turkey and
Kurdistan http://www.ozgurluk.org
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