Türkiye
19.12.01
Urgent Interventions
Press release - Turkey: One year after the military raid against prisoners on December 19, 2000
For immediate release
Geneva, December 19, 2001
PRESS RELEASE
Whilst welcoming the recent publication of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) report related to the prison crisis one year after the military raids conducted by the Turkish security forces against hunger striking detainees in twenty prisons on December 19, 2000, OMCT strongly condemns both the ongoing impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners during and in the aftermath of the interventions, and the lack of effective judicial reform applied by the Turkish authorities.
In the early hours of 19 December 2000, over 10000 members of the Turkish security forces launched simultaneous military raids across Turkey in an attempt to enforce the transfer of over a thousand prisoners into Turkey’s newly constructed “F-type” prisons. In the course of that operation 30 prisoners died together with two prison gendarmes.
Since the beginning of the year, OMCT has been deeply concerned by the absence of thorough and independent inquiry aiming at clarify both the conditions under which six women died, some of them from severe burns, in Istanbul Detention House Barampasa when the police stormed the facility and at the allegations of use of tear gas grenades and gas with a neurogical effect (causing temporary loss of control over body movements) used by the security forces in the course of the operation.
The Turkish authorities indicated that they would provide an update on the investigations being carried out by public prosecutors in relation to the prison interventions and ill-treatment in the aftermath of the raid. However, till the announcement of an inquiry into this matter by the Turkish Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, rather than initiating investigations into the actions of the security forces, the Turkish State has instead initiated investigations against the prisoners themselves.
In light of this failure, the repeated excessive and disproportionate use of force by the Turkish authorities against prisoners since 1995 calls for a firm reaction on the part of all international and European agencies, and perhaps principally by the European Union which is in a position to urge Turkey to take the necessary measures to put a stop to this ongoing state of impunity.
The CPT, along with the European Union, through the adoption of guidelines regarding torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment on 9 April 2001 and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture in his annual report issued in January 2001, have made recommendations, urging that the prison monitoring boards and supervisory judges to be implemented by Turkish authorities be given a prominent role in the development of communal activities for prisoners held in F-type prisons. While recalling that insufficient access to communal activities jeopardises detainees’ physical and psychological health and increases their risk of torture or ill-treatment in isolation cells, OMCT recalls the urgent need to accelerate the effective entry into force of the unconditional right to communal activity programmes in F-type prisons and of the monitoring of prisons and detention centres by an impartial and transparent board.
To date, more than 40 hunger strikers have died on death fast and it is estimated that more than 200 others are currently either on death fasts or on a hunger strike in solidarity against the F-type prison system and the ongoing impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners during the December operation as well as other interventions against hunger strikers carried out by security forces and special police teams outside the prisons. OMCT recalls that recently, on Tuesday 6th November 2001, approximately one thousand members of the special police force carried out an operation against hunger strikers on a «death fast», who were either on the verge of death or in an advanced state of mental and physical deterioration in «death fast houses» in Kuçukarmatlu, a small Istanbul neighbourhood, causing the death of four people.
In this context, it is of utmost importance that the Turkish authorities rapidly publish the results of any full, impartial and effective investigation into these interventions by security forces since last December 19, as required by the CPT since January 2001, and that they monitor necessary penal and prisons reforms in compliance with international and European standards.
For more information, please contact Elsa Le Pennec at the World Organisation Against Torture +41.22.809.49.39 or omct@omct.org
OMCT publications and Urgent Appeals on Turkey since October 2000 can be consulted on OMCT’s website: www.omct.org: See « F-Type prisons crisis and the repression of human rights defenders in Turkey, Report from a Fact-Finding mission to Istanbul and Ankara on 5-11 May 2001 with Updates”, OMCT, KHRP and EMHRN Observer mission, October 2001
The CPT's report on its visits to Turkey in December 2000/January 2001 and April/May 2001, and the response of the Turkish Government can be obtained from the CPT's Internet Site: www.cpt.coe.int
Geneva, December 19, 2001
PRESS RELEASE
Whilst welcoming the recent publication of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) report related to the prison crisis one year after the military raids conducted by the Turkish security forces against hunger striking detainees in twenty prisons on December 19, 2000, OMCT strongly condemns both the ongoing impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners during and in the aftermath of the interventions, and the lack of effective judicial reform applied by the Turkish authorities.
In the early hours of 19 December 2000, over 10000 members of the Turkish security forces launched simultaneous military raids across Turkey in an attempt to enforce the transfer of over a thousand prisoners into Turkey’s newly constructed “F-type” prisons. In the course of that operation 30 prisoners died together with two prison gendarmes.
Since the beginning of the year, OMCT has been deeply concerned by the absence of thorough and independent inquiry aiming at clarify both the conditions under which six women died, some of them from severe burns, in Istanbul Detention House Barampasa when the police stormed the facility and at the allegations of use of tear gas grenades and gas with a neurogical effect (causing temporary loss of control over body movements) used by the security forces in the course of the operation.
The Turkish authorities indicated that they would provide an update on the investigations being carried out by public prosecutors in relation to the prison interventions and ill-treatment in the aftermath of the raid. However, till the announcement of an inquiry into this matter by the Turkish Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, rather than initiating investigations into the actions of the security forces, the Turkish State has instead initiated investigations against the prisoners themselves.
In light of this failure, the repeated excessive and disproportionate use of force by the Turkish authorities against prisoners since 1995 calls for a firm reaction on the part of all international and European agencies, and perhaps principally by the European Union which is in a position to urge Turkey to take the necessary measures to put a stop to this ongoing state of impunity.
The CPT, along with the European Union, through the adoption of guidelines regarding torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment on 9 April 2001 and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture in his annual report issued in January 2001, have made recommendations, urging that the prison monitoring boards and supervisory judges to be implemented by Turkish authorities be given a prominent role in the development of communal activities for prisoners held in F-type prisons. While recalling that insufficient access to communal activities jeopardises detainees’ physical and psychological health and increases their risk of torture or ill-treatment in isolation cells, OMCT recalls the urgent need to accelerate the effective entry into force of the unconditional right to communal activity programmes in F-type prisons and of the monitoring of prisons and detention centres by an impartial and transparent board.
To date, more than 40 hunger strikers have died on death fast and it is estimated that more than 200 others are currently either on death fasts or on a hunger strike in solidarity against the F-type prison system and the ongoing impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners during the December operation as well as other interventions against hunger strikers carried out by security forces and special police teams outside the prisons. OMCT recalls that recently, on Tuesday 6th November 2001, approximately one thousand members of the special police force carried out an operation against hunger strikers on a «death fast», who were either on the verge of death or in an advanced state of mental and physical deterioration in «death fast houses» in Kuçukarmatlu, a small Istanbul neighbourhood, causing the death of four people.
In this context, it is of utmost importance that the Turkish authorities rapidly publish the results of any full, impartial and effective investigation into these interventions by security forces since last December 19, as required by the CPT since January 2001, and that they monitor necessary penal and prisons reforms in compliance with international and European standards.
For more information, please contact Elsa Le Pennec at the World Organisation Against Torture +41.22.809.49.39 or omct@omct.org
OMCT publications and Urgent Appeals on Turkey since October 2000 can be consulted on OMCT’s website: www.omct.org: See « F-Type prisons crisis and the repression of human rights defenders in Turkey, Report from a Fact-Finding mission to Istanbul and Ankara on 5-11 May 2001 with Updates”, OMCT, KHRP and EMHRN Observer mission, October 2001
The CPT's report on its visits to Turkey in December 2000/January 2001 and April/May 2001, and the response of the Turkish Government can be obtained from the CPT's Internet Site: www.cpt.coe.int