| Human Rights Mission |
På norsk - in Norwegian På norsk - in Norwegian19.12.2000, 2:00 pm
The Turkish security forces, directed by the Ministry for Internal Affairs, have attacked on the political prisoners on death fast and hunger strike in 20 different prisons this morning at 4:30am at local time in Turkey. In the attacks every type of bombs and weapons, bulldozers have been used and the prisons have been holed from walls and roofs.
The attacks on 5 prisons are still continuing and the prisoners are resisting. According to the information given on the TVs many prisoners have been murdered:
Many prisoners have also been wounded and no information about their whereabouts has been received.
According to the information given by the minister for Internal Affairs, 2 gendarmeries have also died during the operations.
The relatives of prisoners and many people are alarmed in front of prisons and being attacked by the security forces. 35 people have been taken in detention by the police at the front of Umraniye prison.
We should stop the massacre of fascist state. We should take a side together with the political prisoners.
Germany:
AGIF - Föderation der ArbeitsimmigrantInnen aus der Türkei in Deutschland
Gremberger Str. 249
51105 Köln - Germany
Tel: +49 (0) 221 830 6249
Fax: +49 (0) 221 830 6293
e-mail: agif@gmx.de
France:
ACTIT
Tel: +33 (0) 1 48 000 533
Fax: +33 (0) 1 42 463 029
UK:
SCADC-L
Unit C1
3-19 Victorian Grove
N16 8EN
Fax: +44 (0) 870 831 5780
e-mail: scadc_turkey@hotmail.com
Amnesty International is deeply concerned by reports that Turkish security personnel today stormed 20 prisons, resulting in the deaths of at least 6 prisoners and 2 gendarmers, and dozens of injuries. The operation was designed to bring to an end a 61 day death fast by over 200 prisoners protesting at a plan to transfer them to smaller cells. The human rights organization has today written to the Turkish government, calling upon it to:
Amnesty International is also concerned by reports of mass arrests of the protesters' supporters. The organization has urged the Turkish government to ensure that the supporters are neither tortured or ill-treated, and are afforded their full rights. It is understood that a number of human rights defenders, politicians, trade unionists and representatives of non-violent organizations have also been arrested. The leading human rights defender Eren Keskin - a lawyer - was also detained for an hour. Amnesty International has urged the Turkish government to ensure that anyone detained for peacefully expressing their views is released immediately and unconditionally and that the security forces refrain from any arbitrary detentions.
Amnesty International has also informed the Turkish government that it is alarmed to learn that offices of the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD) have been raided, their office in the eastern town of Van closed and documents confiscated from their Istanbul branch. Amnesty International calls upon the Turkish government to respect the rights of human rights defenders to pursue their legitimate tasks of monitoring and reporting violations.
After an intensive fact finding mission in Istanbul, Turkey, during five days, the delegation tried to clear up about the events during the military operation in 18 Turkish prisons on December 19th 2000 and the transport of the prisoners to the F-type prisons (isolationcells). The delegation also wanted to check the situation and the condition of the prisoners inside the new prisons and of the prisoners who are in hospital.
Information was collected by different organisations, i.e. TAYAD (organisation for solidarity with the families of prisoners), the human rights organisation IHD, lawyers of the Bar of Istanbul and Ankara, a member of the human rights commission of the Bar of Istanbul, the chamber of Architects of Istanbul and the chamber of Medicines of Istanbul, members of the committee's negotiating between the government and the prisoners, a member of the Human Rights Comity of the Turkish Parliament.
Ex-prisoners who experienced the army operation of December 19th (and who in the mean time came free), families of the prisoners and their lawyers, who had visited their relatives and clients after December 19th, independently declare the following:
The lawyers and doctors were impeded to fulfil their work: the lawyers were impeded or refused to visit their clients and were subjected to intimidating and humiliating treatments. It was not allowed by any independent medical doctor to get access to the prisoners (wounded or not), nor in the F-type prisons, nor in the hospitals.
The use of the F-type prisons, and of the so called "Operation", is a fact and is not according to the promises of the Turkish government at the European meeting in Nice, France, at December 9 th, 2000 (postponing the use of F-type prisons with 6 months).
Over 800 prisoners were already on hungerstrike before the operation took place. More than 200 of them were in death-fast. Now all this over 800 prisoners decided to continue their hungerstrike in death-fast. An even other prisoners who were not in hungerstrike accompanied them, so the total amount of death-fast-resisters increased to over 1000. About 100 hungerstrikers are in a very critical situation and are expected to die during the next days.
The delegation regrets that, despite the counselling by the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Michel with his Turkish colleague Mr. Cem, that the Turkish government refused all contact with our delegation and refused to give us any permission to visit and examine the prisoners in the new prisons and the hospitals. No gesture of co-operation was made to facilitate the contacts between the delegation and different representatives of the Turkish authorities.
In the name of the delegation,