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• 14 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 261 • December 2006 the Associated Press. Most statistics are based on the figure given by the Pentagon on 28 December 2006 of 2,988. AP’s figures, which take into account the deaths reported by journalists in Iraq, havew always been ahead of those of the Pentagon. The percentages by ethnic minority werte last updated on 2 December 2006. Furthermore, Rob Portman, Director of the White House’s Budget Office, indicated that the cast of the war in Iraq for the Budget Year 2007, which began last October, is likely to exceed $110 billion. According to Associated Press calculations,based on the estimates of Congress’s two official budget bodies, the cost of the Iraq war, begun in March 2003, was $290 billion as of the end of the 2006 budget year (end September 2006), of which $254 billion are military costs, according to a report dated 22 September 2006. The Congressional Research Service evaluated total at $319 billion, pointing out that this represents 73% of the expenditure on the “war against terrorism” launched following the 11 September 2001 attacks. STRASBOURG: THE EUROPEAN HUMAN RIGHTS COURT FINDS ANKARA GUILTY OF THE MURDER OF THE KURDISH PLAYWRIGHT, MUSA ANTER, AND OF VIOLATIONS OF THE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION OF KURDISH JOURNALISTS AND BUSINESSMEN O n 19 December, Turkey was found guilty by the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, following the murder in 1992 of Musa Anter, a well known writer and editorialist and one of the founders of the People’s Labour Party (HEP). His three children, who accuse the Turkish authorities of having carried out an “extra-judicial execution”, will jointly receive 25,000 euros damages and 3,500 euros casts. According to the European Court, Turkey had been lacking in its obligation to protect the life of Musa Anter, knowing that he was being threatened, and to then conduct an effective enquiry into the circumstances of the death of this well known man, at that time Director of the Kurdish Institute of Istanbul. On 20 September 1992, Musa Anter was killed with five bullets by an unknown man, while in Diyarbekir where he had been invited to a festival organised by the municipality. The murder was committed by a gendarme of the JITEM (the Gendarmerie Intelligence and anti-terrorist Service) who later repented and confessed this murder in a book published in 2004. The European Court considered, for its part, that no concrete fact proved that an extra-judicial execution was committed by agents of the State, but it was convinced that Turkey could have taken measures to protect Musa Anter, a particularly exposed target, because of his political commitments. The Strasbourg judges also found Turkey guilty in another case on the same day. Turkey will have to pay 25,000 euros damages to a Turkish couple, today residing in Cologne (Germany), victims of torture by the police during their interrogation by the anti-terrorist section of the Istanbul police in 1994. Moreover, the European Court for Human Rights found Turkey guilty of violating freedom of expression in several cases, particularly ones linked to the Kurdish question. Among the five petitioners, two — Erdal Tas and Mehmet Emin Yildiz, respectively chief editor and owner of the daily 2000’de Yeni Gündem — had been sentenced to heavy fines by the Istanbul State Security Court for havinfg published articles summarising statements by leaders of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Two others, Bülent Falakaoglu and Fevzi Saygili, at the time chief editor and owner of the daily paper Yeni Evrensel, had been sentenced to the same penalty for having sharply criticised two policemen, who the Court considered had thus become potential “targets” for terrorist organisations. The last, Mehmet Erol Yarar, President of the Association of Independent Industrialists and Businessmen (MUSIAD) had been sentenced for a speech allegedly inciting hatred on the basis of a distinction founded on membership of a race or region. The ECHR considered the grounds accepted by the Turkish courts for limiting the freedom of expression of the five petitioners were insufficient and judged that the sentences passed on them “disproportionate”, as in many other similar cases. It awarded the petitioners a a total of 24,000 euros damages and 9.500 euros costs.
n° 261 • December 2006 Information and liaison bulletin • 15 • READ IN THE TURKISH PRESS: THE REPORT OF THE OF THE TURKISH FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH (TESEV) REGARDING THE FORCED DISPLACEMENT OF KURDS F ollowing the publication of a report entitled “The results of the internal displacements in Turkey” by the Turkish Foundation for Economic and Social Research (TESEV) the Turkish daily Milliyet interviewed Dr. Dilek Kurban, director of the TESEV programme and Dr. Deniz Yukseker, lecturer at the University of Koç, about the forced displacements carried out in the 90s by the Turkish authorities. The following are extensive extracts taken from this interview by the journalist Derya Sazak: It is still too early to say that there are improvements but we know that the government is becoming aware of the report and showing a certain interest in it. Van Province has been chosen as a pilot region. A plan called “Service for the displaced population” has been drawn up in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme and the Van Governorate was revealed in September, but there have not yet been any concrete results. Moreover, in 2004, a compensation law was passed leading to 200,000 applications from villagers who had been victims of those forced displacements. To date, 27,000 applications have succeeded but we have observed that the compensation given is very small and in no way realistic (…) The State recognised that it had displaced 360,000 people. The Turkish Parliament, in a report published in 1998, gives a figure of 378,000 people. Civil society associations, for their part, talk of between 3 and 4 million people. We, at TESEV, think that these figures are not realistic but without having carried out demographic research think estimate their number at a million. According to the Ministry of the Interior, over 900 villages and 2,000 hamlets were evacuated. A report drawn up at the request of the State Planning Office by Hacettepe University Population Research team, which has not yet been published, should enable to understand these statistics more clearly”, points out Mr. Deniz Yukseker, adding: “Citizenship must be restored in Turkey after these forced displacements, which are illegal even in periods of armed confrontation. The Parliamentary report, which goes back to 1998, expresses the same idea. The Prefect responsible for the State of Emergency Region (OHAL)was given the authority to displace people for security reasons, but this was carried out in an illegal manner. It is time to face up to these forced displacements”. “The Turkish State has the authority to displace the population in a legal context for security reasons. This is called “evacuation”, and international law allows this. However, the situation in the South-East (Editor’s Note: Turkish Kurdistan) it was applied illegally. As we have revealed in our research, this took place in many places under “threats”. The villagers were first called on to become “village protectors” (Editor’s Note: State regional auxiliary militia) — then, in the event of a refusal, told to evacuate their village within two days! If they did not evacuate, the village was burn to the ground! We have collected many testimonies in which the events had many similarities”, stresses Dr. Yukseker. Dr. Dilek Kurban, for his part, pointed out that “the victims at the beginning of the 90s decade applied to the European Court for Human Rights, which found Turkey guilty and sentenced it to heavy fines. The Turkish Republic, recognising that it was administratively responsible for the region as a State, accepted to settle the compensation due to breaches of rights committed by anyone whatsoever. But the State has never accepted that it had evacuated villages and accused the PKK. 1,500 petitions have been filed against Turkey and, on the recommendations of the Council of Europe, the European Court decided to carry out a pilot scheme in collective cases. Taking into account the petitions of January 2006, the European Court reached the following conclusion: a new internal legal system regarding compensation must be applied. In practive, applications to the European Court are blocked but the compensation is too small and the procedure too slow”. As for the solutions recommended, Dr. Kurban pointed out that “we, as part of TESEV think that the Kurdish question is a major obstacle in the way of democratisation. The source of the problem is the Kurdish question, thus the solution is also linked with that of the Kurdish question (…) Turkey has never accepted the term civil war (…) If this was accepted it would be possible to evacuate civilians for their own security, on condition that this was only temporary. The victims of of displacements were, to a large extent those who refused to assume the role of “village protectors”. It can thus be seen as a punishment. Moreover, the armed clashes have ceased since 1999 but these people have still not been able to return to their villages. Thus it is not temporary and, even so, humanitarian aid from the United Nations was refused until 2002 (Editor’s Note: or from the Red Crescent) for this population. Even if at least 355,000 people have been displaced, this is a great catastrophe and the State should deploy as much
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