Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RIVISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN OZETi
PKK actions spark debate in
• Amnesty International's
Yokohama declaration is
at the focus of the debate
By Murat Yetkin
Turkish Daily News
ANKARA- The action~
lawed Kurdistan Workers'
of the out-
Party (PKK)
sparked
activists
a debate within the human rights
in Turkey. The PKK targets
civilians and those who are not directly
related to the hot conflict between the
organization
forces.
and the Turkish security
Human rights activists in Turkey who
have been oroanized to take a stand
against the vioFations of human and civil
rights by the state security forces, now
argue wIth each other on how to react to
thIs relatively new situation. The debate
sparked when the Ankara-based Human
Rights Association (lHO) protested the
killing of more than 30 unarmed soldiers
and five civilians
Bingöl in eastern
by the PKK near
Turkey on \-fay ~4.
PKK militants had first kidnapped them
and then killed them in a rural area after
the security forces started a follow-up
operation.
When the IHO headquarters in Ankara
made protested the killing of unarmed
people, some activists wi.t~in th~ !HO,
especially those sympathIZIng ~Ith. the
PKK outlawed fringe left orgamzatlOns
like Dev-Sol
the Turkish
(Revolutionary
Revolutionary
Left), and
Communist
Party (TOKP) became upset with this
new position.
The reaction within the !HO was
openly voiced when the organ!zation
made another statement protestmg the
massacring of 28 villagers in Basb.aglar
village of another eastern province,
Erzincan, on July 6.
The Yokohama criterion
At the focus of the debate there is the
yokohama declaration of the international
human rights watch group Amnesty
Internationa( (AI) issued in 199 I after a
meeting there. .
In that declaration AI said that the
organization would taise it~ voice
against the violations ~f.human nghts ~y
armed political opposItIOn g~ouP.s, WIth
the emphasis still.being on vIOlatIOns .by
government secunty force~. The ~I. hsted
those violations as arbItrary kllhngs,
torture and kidnappings. In that conte.xt,
the oroanization had named the countnes
having such groups as the "Philippines,
Sri Lanka, Peru, Turkey and some
Middle East COUl1trie.s."
human rights circles
Supporting the Yokohoma declaration,
t.Ve secretary general of !H~ .. H.üsnü
Ondül, expands the context of arbItrary
killing" by the factors listed in the 1949
convention on the law of war, as the
killing of: those who are not a party in
the war; those defenseless and without
any means of protection; those who laid
down their arms and those who surrendered;
women and children; those who
are left out of the war with reasons like
illness, being ',\:ounded, imprisonment,
and so forth.
Criticizing the violations of those principles
by the anl1ed organizations, Ondül
say the IHO and human rights activists
should support the idea of supei'iority of
"the humanitarian law."
Ondul is supported by Ercan KanaI',
the head of Istanbul bninch of the IHO,
another influential figure.
Support for the idea grows because the
PKK killed school teachers in the east
and southeast. claiming they were among
the "revolutionary targets" of the orßanization
unless they resigned and lert the
region by Oct. I. The teachers' "crime"
according to the PKKwas to work as the
"paid agents" of the Turkish government.
There are letters sent by the IHO organizatioi's
from eastern towns asking
headquarters to take a tou,gher stand
UK seeks explanation from
Bonn about Iran contacts
Reuters
LONDON- British Foreign Secretary
Douglas Hurd has asked Germany's
ambassador for clarification of
a reported meeting between his country's
intelligence officials and an
Iranian secret agentlast week.
Hurd was said to be angry about
the meetings, which appeared t? Oout
a European Commumty deciSIOn on
relations .towards Iran following its
death sentence against British author
Salman Rushdie.
A Gennan news maeazine and an
Iranian opposition $r?up sai~. Iranian
Internal Security Mmlster Ah Fallahi'
)'an met officials last week from the
Gennan intefl)al and ,ex!ernal intellia2ainst
lagers.
the murders of teachers and vil-
But Özcan Sapan, for example, in his
article in the Au~ust-September issue of
the "Human Rignts Bulletin," published
. by the
should
!HO, wr.ote that huma~,
be consIdered from a
right.~
class'
point of view.
Sapan says violations by state forces
and by opposition groups ~ which he
claims are using their legitimate right to
resist - are not comparable and the IHO
should focus on violations by the state,
as being the representative of the capitalist
class. Sapan criticizes the AI as trying
to impose
humanitarian
itself as an
behavior".
"institute of
. Sapan is not alone. Two lawyers,
Levent Tuzal and Sedat AsJanta~, support
the same "class approach" - 111
favor of the working class - in their
articles in the same bulletin. Sources
close to the situation predict an escalation
in the debate with the recent conflict
between the PKK and the TOKP
eastern province of Tunceli.
in the
.
But an increasing tendency among
human rights activists in Turkey is to say
that theirjob of obstructing the legitimization.of
t.he,use of violence 'by state
forces cannot, ignore the use of vipience
by other groups just becaus~
they are opposItion groups.
they say
gence services at Bonn's invitation.
The 'Iranian group said the meetings
were intended to help Iran expand
ils activities against opposition
groups.
British Foreign Office officials said
that "eyebrows were certainly raised"
about the meetings and, Hurd
wanted to seek clarification from
Gennany's ambassador.
The officials said the subject was
raised during a regular meetmg with
ambassador Peter Hartmann. Hartmann
had not been summoned, they
said. . .
Britain's concern over contacts
with Iran were reinforced by the 11'0-
unding in a gun allack on Monday of
the Norwegian publisher of Rushdie's.
novel "The Satanic Verses," which
ÜJeIranian authorities consider blasp-
. hemous to Islam. .
An EC declaration at the December
1992 Edinburgh summit said a dialogue
shou.ld be maintained with
Iran.
BUI it should reOect "concern about
Iranian behavior, and calls for improvement
in a number of areas particularly
human rights, the death sentence
pronounceaby a fatwa of Ayatollah
Khomeini a&ainst the author
Salman Rushdie which is contrary to
internationallall', and tel)orism."
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