Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
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REVUE DE PRESSE-PRESS REVIEW-BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ-RWISTA STAMPA-DENTRO DE LA PRENSA-BASIN OZET;<br />
turkish daily news<br />
Turkish Daily News<br />
LONDON- The London-based international<br />
human rights watchdog group,<br />
Amnesty International, this weekend blasted<br />
Turkey for s<strong>et</strong>ting up s~cial "containment<br />
areas" in the terror-nd<strong>de</strong>n Southeast<br />
region and placing over a thousand villagers<br />
in "arbitrary <strong>de</strong>tention."<br />
Amnesty said there was concern that the<br />
<strong>de</strong>tention of an estimated 1,500 villagers in<br />
the Southeast, where government troops<br />
have been fjghti~~ the forces of the outlawed<br />
Kurdistan workers' Party (PKK) for<br />
ten years, had led to new accounts of torture<br />
and ill-treatment as well.<br />
In an urgent appeal for action issued at<br />
the weekend, Amnesty i<strong>de</strong>ntified Cemil<br />
Timur, Zey-din Timur and ~evk<strong>et</strong> Timur<br />
from the vllla~e of Evrek in Beytussebap,<br />
Hakkari, as belOgamong the <strong>de</strong>tamed.<br />
It also named Hasan Ay~~t, Fehim<br />
YalçlO,Saadi Ozlü and Osman Ozlü among<br />
the 1,500 villagers, including. women and<br />
children, who were taken by troops te a<br />
specific containment area in the province.<br />
The statement said at least two "containment<br />
areas" had been s<strong>et</strong> up by military<br />
troops in the region and that one clos<strong>et</strong>o<br />
Evrek still held villagers.<br />
"These <strong>de</strong>tentions,~' said Amnesty, referring<br />
to the containment process, ."occurred<br />
in the course of the burning and brutal<br />
evacuation of Kurdish villages during military<br />
operations a~ainst guerrillas of the<br />
Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), and the<br />
s<strong>et</strong>ting up of containment areas in which<br />
displaced villagers are bein~ held in<br />
appalling conditions."<br />
Amnesty claimed a number of villages<br />
around Evrek had been forcibly evacuated<br />
and many houses and crops had been<br />
burned by security forces because of the<br />
villagers' refusal to join the system of village<br />
guards (villagers paid and armed by<br />
the government to combat PKK militants).<br />
"The villagers' i<strong>de</strong>ntity cards have been<br />
confiscated, effectively <strong>de</strong>taining them as<br />
anyone moving abo!)t in the area without<br />
proper i<strong>de</strong>ntification faces the risk of interrogation<br />
for illegal activities or even extrajudicial<br />
execution," Amnesty said. .<br />
The statement ad<strong>de</strong>d that villagers trying<br />
to flee were being turned back. "They have<br />
not been charged with any offence and<br />
Amnesty International is appealing that<br />
they be allowed to leave. There have been<br />
reports that villagers have been beaten in<br />
Evrek. . .<br />
The lack of proper registration also<br />
exposes them to the risk of disappearance,"<br />
it said. In its statement, Amnesty quoted<br />
four local villagers who reported on the<br />
conditions in another containment camp s<strong>et</strong><br />
up in the village of Damlatepe in Hani,<br />
Diyarbalm.<br />
The villagers claimed that after a clash<br />
-----------------------------<br />
Tuesday, July 26, 1994<br />
with the PK~, security forces on July 7<br />
began the forcible evacuation of Akcayurt<br />
(Kurdish name: Deman), Akçayurt<br />
(Demo), Kaladibi (Horsel), Sanbudak<br />
(Melekan) villages and their outlying districts<br />
of Sakhca (Hursik) and Yayla<strong>de</strong>re<br />
(Seleheydan), situated b<strong>et</strong>ween Genç and<br />
Hani in DiyarbaIar province.<br />
"They burned many hou.ses, barns and<br />
livestock and <strong>de</strong>stroyed irrigation pumps<br />
and crops. On July 8 Hac! Sait M<strong>et</strong>e (67)<br />
of Sanbudak village was shot <strong>de</strong>ad while<br />
taking his sheep to pasture. His body was<br />
buried by soldIers un<strong>de</strong>r rocks," the villagers<br />
said.<br />
Amnesty alleged that "an estimated<br />
2,000 evacuated villagers, including<br />
women and children, were her<strong>de</strong>d into a<br />
containment area s<strong>et</strong> up by the security<br />
forces adjacent to the Topçular<br />
Gendarmerie Post near Damlatepe and held<br />
for a week in cruel and inhuman conditions.<br />
Many were reported to have been<br />
severely tortured there by members of the<br />
Special Team (heavily armed security<br />
force members trained for close combat<br />
with guerrillas and acting un<strong>de</strong>r the authority<br />
of the Interior Ministry).<br />
While some were permitted to shelter in<br />
a schoolhouse and health centre, others<br />
were forced to lie in the fierce sun. Much<br />
of the time they were left hungry and<br />
thirsty."<br />
"Four women wearing clothes of red,<br />
yellow and green, the colours of Kurdish<br />
nationalism, were taken away and subjected<br />
to torture.<br />
They were later s<strong>et</strong> free. Emine Çeliksöz<br />
of Yayla<strong>de</strong>re villa~e, who was pregnant<br />
was left in labour ror several hours In th~<br />
burnjn~ sun while the security forces preventea<br />
other women from helRing her.<br />
Children were beaten and kicked.<br />
The statement ad<strong>de</strong>d that Mehm<strong>et</strong><br />
B!çakçl, Ahm<strong>et</strong> Blçakcl and Hasan<br />
BIÇakCI,tog<strong>et</strong>her with the daughters of the<br />
village imam (prayer lea<strong>de</strong>r) were kept for<br />
three days in the health centre where, it<br />
alleged, soldiers humiliated and sexually<br />
assaulted the women.<br />
Continuing with claims of ill-treatment<br />
.the Amnesty urgent action appeal furthe;<br />
alle$ed that sisters Suzan Atsan (32) and<br />
Zeliha Atsan (35) were taken by Special<br />
Team members to the Cemsel stream just<br />
outsi<strong>de</strong> the containment area, and repeatedly<br />
held un<strong>de</strong>r water over a penod of<br />
approximately two hours, after which they<br />
had extreme difficulty in breathing, suffering<br />
violent coughing fits and fever.<br />
Amnesty s.aid that as of July 15 the<br />
Damlatepe containment area, where the<br />
abuses were recor<strong>de</strong>d, began to be emptied.<br />
It ad<strong>de</strong>d that since then, all of the families<br />
<strong>de</strong>tained had moved to the provinces of<br />
Bingöl and Adana.<br />
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