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

REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVlEW~BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RIVISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN ÖZETi
West alarmed
.over reports
of internment
in Southeast
Amnesty International fears
children exposed to ill-treatment
By Ismet G.lmset
Turkish Daily News
LONDON- Human rights organizations and
officials in Europe and in the United States are
alarmed over new reports from Turkey that securi.
ty forces have started to set up internment camps
in thetroubled Southeast region to hold and interrogate
villagers en masse, a cOߥressional source
in Washington said on Friday. According to the
source, United States officials are also looking
into the claims which have been heard since early
July after the launching of il major Turkish mih~
tary offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK) near the province of
Diyarbalar.
. The TDN has been told that at least two such
camps were set up, inDiyaroalar and Hakkari, but
that one of them has already been emptied with all
civilians released.. .
"The reports are truly worrying," said Jonathan
Sugden of the international human rights watch
dog group Amnesty International in London.
'They are worryino for they suggest the beginning
of a new pattern of abuses In the area," he told the
.TDN on Friday. Amnesty is geared
up to launch a campaign on the issue
and to hi~hlight what Sugden refers
to as a situation in which "a large
number of people are. held in ad hoc
camps and, inevitab.1Y, are mo~~
exposed ta torture and iii-treatment.
The or~anization, through i~ own
. sources In Turkey, has confirmed
that at least two such camps were set
up in the same week of early July
and that one based in Hakkari reportedly
h?lds over 1,000 ciyihans
including women and children.
Reports coming in from the region
imply that some of the villagers were
evacuated from their settlements and
detained only after refusing to join
the paramilitary village guards. More
than 1,0QO villages and hamlets in
the Turkish Southeast have been
evacuated for security reasons over
the past years and most have been
torched, a recent Turkish Human
Rights Association report had'
claImed. .
70
turkish cfuily news
. .
"The fact that both of the camps
were set up the .same week suggests
there may have been an order sent.
out. We are now particularly. con"
cerned that children are also
involved.and they are being detained
illegally and are subject to torture,"
Sugden said:
''We have been workin~ publicly
for many months appealing to the
CSCE (Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe) to 'send a
missIOn to Turkey. This shows that
now there is an urgent need for this."
According to information reaching
London, the first of the two camps
was set up near a gendarmerie station
in Damlatepe in the Hani district of
Diyarba1ar. At least four villages and
two hamlets were evacuated by
troops and the population was moved
to this camp. ''We have been told by
witnesses that Dam]atepe camp is
now empty. Some of the villagers
have gone back to build new houses
and others have moved to (the southern
province of) Adana," Sugden
said on Friday. Damlatepe was set up
on July 6. Kurdish sources in Koln,
Germany, say there has Qeen no
news of the villagers detained by
troops in the three weeks since theIr
settlements were evacuated and
allegedly burned down. They fear
that the victims may be subject to
torture. The PKK, which has
imposed a self-styled ban on the
Turkish press, has refused to comment
on the development.
According to reports reaching
London from local Kurdish sources,
the internment camps appear to be
part of Turkish efforts to contain terrorist
activities in the region and to
cut off local militia supr0rt for the
PKK. Previously Turkey s policy of
evacuation was criticised by human
rights activists on the grounds that
villagers ~ere not being compensated
for theIr losses or shown where to
resettle. Observers believe this new
pattèrn could also be a military filter-
Ing process for displaced Kurds.
questioning them be.fore they are
allowed to migrate tg;o~er parts of
Turkey ..Regional Kp,rdlsh sources
claim that at least wee such camps
have been set up although the presence
of only two cQuid be independently
confrrmed. ';
Amnesty fears' that wh~tev~r the
reason thIS new pattern ID vllla~e
evacuations could lead to further dISappearances
ofKlridish ~ivilians.
Such disappearances ~~ve Increased
steadilv• in__ the. reoion I> smce 1993.
Saturday, lul>'.23, 1994
According to a TDN source in
Diyarbakrr the Damlatepe camp was
initially sei up when commando and
~endarmerie forces cracked down on
me PKK in the fust week of July in
the Hani-Lice-Genc triangle, declari~g
the àrea off-limits to all outsufers.
.
Kurdish sources say there was no
news from the villagers who were
iaken to the camp until they were
released. The women and children
were the first to be Jet out of the
Damlatepe camp. One of the villages
evacuated and destroyed during the
said operation has been identified as
Seleheydan.
Since then, all telephone lines to
the area have been cut andeven
Kurdish activists agree that information
'coming out of the region may
not be reliable.
There are local claims, however,
that a second campwas set up in
Topcular, also close to a gendarmerie
post. Kurdish activists in Europe say
the people from villages in the Selvi
(Sivan), Shelmenzin and Caxit dis- .
tricts of Genç have also been
detained and taken to the camps. .
There have also been allegations
from Kurdish circles that on July 8,
troops accompanied by village
guards raided. the Kerwas village of
Diyarbakir along with the Mexle
hamlet of the same village and
torched more than 30 houses on the
grounds that the civilians had refused
tojoin the paramilitary village guard
forces. 'Over 200 people fled to
Diyarbakir city center following this
raid. According to Amnesty, the second
major inte.rnmentcamp has been
set up In Beytussebap, Hakkari and
currently holds some 1,400 civilians
including èhildren. The population of
the camp consists of villagers evacuated
from their settlements. They
have béen stripped of their ID cards,
an essential requirement for travel in
the war zone, and told by troops that
they cannot enter the town. But some
have 'managçd to escape and to tell
their story. Sources in Hakkari say
that 'troops, especially in the Mezra
district of Beytussebap, have
besie~ed several villages and banned
the CIvilianpopulation from leaving
the area - imposing at the same
time a major food embargo,
explained locally as a method to prevent
supplies from reaching the
PKK. The issue is expected to lead
to further international pressure on .
Turkey related to the country's
unsatisfaciOIYhuman rights record.