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• 14 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 261 • December 2006<br />
the Associated Press. Most statistics<br />
are based on the figure given by<br />
the Pentagon on 28 December 2006<br />
of 2,988. AP’s figures, which take<br />
into account the <strong>de</strong>aths reported<br />
by journalists in Iraq, havew<br />
always been ahead of those of the<br />
Pentagon. The percentages by<br />
ethnic minority werte last updated<br />
on 2 December 2006.<br />
Furthermore, Rob Portman,<br />
Director of the White House’s<br />
Budget Office, indicated that the<br />
cast of the war in Iraq for the<br />
Budget Year 2007, which began last<br />
October, is likely to exceed $110<br />
billion. According to Associated<br />
Press calculations,based on the<br />
estimates of Congress’s two official<br />
budget bodies, the cost of the Iraq<br />
war, begun in March 2003, was<br />
$290 billion as of the end of the<br />
2006 budget year (end September<br />
2006), of which $254 billion are<br />
military costs, according to a report<br />
dated 22 September 2006. The<br />
Congressional Research Service<br />
evaluated total at $319 billion,<br />
pointing out that this represents<br />
73% of the expenditure on the “war<br />
against terrorism” launched<br />
following the 11 September 2001<br />
attacks.<br />
STRASBOURG: THE EUROPEAN HUMAN RIGHTS COURT<br />
FINDS ANKARA GUILTY OF THE MURDER<br />
OF THE KURDISH PLAYWRIGHT, MUSA ANTER,<br />
AND OF VIOLATIONS OF THE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION<br />
OF KURDISH JOURNALISTS AND BUSINESSMEN<br />
O<br />
n 19 December, Turkey<br />
was found guilty by the<br />
European Court for<br />
Human Rights (ECHR) in<br />
Strasbourg, following the<br />
mur<strong>de</strong>r in 1992 of Musa Anter, a<br />
well known writer and editorialist<br />
and one of the foun<strong>de</strong>rs of the<br />
People’s Labour Party (HEP). His<br />
three children, who accuse the<br />
Turkish authorities of having<br />
carried out an “extra-judicial<br />
execution”, will jointly receive<br />
25,000 euros damages and 3,500<br />
euros casts. According to the<br />
European Court, Turkey had been<br />
lacking in its obligation to protect<br />
the life of Musa Anter, knowing<br />
that he was being threatened, and<br />
to then conduct an effective<br />
enquiry into the circumstances of<br />
the <strong>de</strong>ath of this well known man,<br />
at that time Director of the Kurdish<br />
<strong>Institut</strong>e of Istanbul.<br />
On 20 September 1992, Musa Anter<br />
was killed with five bullets by an<br />
unknown man, while in Diyarbekir<br />
where he had been invited to a<br />
festival organised by the<br />
municipality. The mur<strong>de</strong>r was<br />
committed by a gendarme of the<br />
JITEM (the Gendarmerie<br />
Intelligence and anti-terrorist<br />
Service) who later repented and<br />
confessed this mur<strong>de</strong>r in a book<br />
published in 2004. The European<br />
Court consi<strong>de</strong>red, for its part, that<br />
no concrete fact proved that an<br />
extra-judicial execution was<br />
committed by agents of the State,<br />
but it was convinced that Turkey<br />
could have taken measures to<br />
protect Musa Anter, a particularly<br />
exposed target, because of his<br />
political commitments.<br />
The Strasbourg judges also found<br />
Turkey guilty in another case on<br />
the same day. Turkey will have to<br />
pay 25,000 euros damages to a<br />
Turkish couple, today residing in<br />
Cologne (Germany), victims of<br />
torture by the police during their<br />
interrogation by the anti-terrorist<br />
section of the Istanbul police in<br />
1994.<br />
Moreover, the European Court for<br />
Human Rights found Turkey<br />
guilty of violating freedom of<br />
expression in several cases,<br />
particularly ones <strong>linked</strong> to the<br />
Kurdish question. Among the five<br />
petitioners, two — Erdal Tas and<br />
Mehmet Emin Yildiz, respectively<br />
chief editor and owner of the daily<br />
2000’<strong>de</strong> Yeni Gün<strong>de</strong>m — had been<br />
sentenced to heavy fines by the<br />
Istanbul State Security Court for<br />
havinfg published articles<br />
summarising statements by<br />
lea<strong>de</strong>rs of the Kurdistan Workers’<br />
Party (PKK).<br />
Two others, Bülent Falakaoglu and<br />
Fevzi Saygili, at the time chief<br />
editor and owner of the daily<br />
paper Yeni Evrensel, had been<br />
sentenced to the same penalty for<br />
having sharply criticised two<br />
policemen, who the Court<br />
consi<strong>de</strong>red had thus become<br />
potential “targets” for terrorist<br />
organisations.<br />
The last, Mehmet Erol Yarar,<br />
Presi<strong>de</strong>nt of the Association of<br />
In<strong>de</strong>pen<strong>de</strong>nt Industrialists and<br />
Businessmen (MUSIAD) had been<br />
sentenced for a speech allegedly<br />
inciting hatred on the basis of a<br />
distinction foun<strong>de</strong>d on<br />
membership of a race or region.<br />
The ECHR consi<strong>de</strong>red the grounds<br />
accepted by the Turkish courts for<br />
limiting the freedom of expression<br />
of the five petitioners were<br />
insufficient and judged that the<br />
sentences passed on them<br />
“disproportionate”, as in many other<br />
similar cases. It awar<strong>de</strong>d the<br />
petitioners a a total of 24,000 euros<br />
damages and 9.500 euros costs.