sipila
Mon, 26 Mar 2001 06:05:34 -0800
From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 11:05:59 +0200
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: "[Ozgurluk.Org]" Turkey puts rape victims in the dock
Turkey puts rape victims in the dock
The women who face jail for daring to accuse the police of sexual
abuse
James Dorsey in Istanbul Sunday March 25, 2001 The Observer
Fatima Polattas says she was 19 when Turkish police raped her while
she was in custody. She filed charges and her four alleged tormenters
are now on
But so is Polattas. She faces up to six years in prison for insulting
Turkey's security forces and the moral integrity of her country by
speaking publicly about her ordeal.
Polattas is one of 11 women and one man who went on trial in Istanbul
last week for describing sexual torture at a conference on sexual
abuse and rape organised in Istanbul last year by the Women Wo Most
of the defendants were among 21 people detained by police as they
left the conference. They face jail terms of up to 30 years. The
court adjourned until 21 June, ordering police to find videos of
the conference.
Ironically, Polattas was not at the conference. She is already in
jail, serving 18 years for allegedly belonging to the Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), th 16-year war in south-east Turkey for greater
autonomy for the country's estimated 12 million Kurds. She denies
being a member.
The PKK declared an end to the war, in which 30,000 people died,
in 1999, after Turkish security forces captured its leader, Abdullah
Ocalan, and he was sentenced to death for treason.
Polattas's father is the one male defendant on trial, accused of
slander for readina message from his daughter to the conference.
Arrested in 1999, Polattas says she and her friend, Ceren Salmanoglu,
then aged 16, confessed to being PKK members only after they were
beaten, sprayed with freezing water and raped with a truncheon
during eight days of interrogation. Salmanoglu was sentenced to 21
years. Polattas and the other defendants at the conference were the
first women
to
speak out about police rape. Women rarely talk of their ordeal,
afraid they will worsen their situation by violating laws that
restrict freedom of expression when it comes to the honour and
reputation of Turkey's security forces.
Polattas's trial highlights Turkey's difficult struggle to clean
up its human rights record as it prepares for European Union
membership. Two days before the trial started, Ankara published a
report promisingreforms to end torture, including training
uropean
Commission, also
commits Turkey to
review
laws that restrict freedom of expression.
'Turkey is a country that two days ago promised human rights for
all. Don't I have that right?' Sultan Secik, one of Polattas's
co-defendants, asked the court. The eight police officers Secik
accuses of raping her are currently on trial.
International human rights groups have condemned the trial of the
rape victims. In a statement, Amnesty International said it had
'cled on the Turkish authorities to drop the charges against these
women's rights activists who are guilty only of peacefully expressing
their views'.
Turkey admits that torture occurs, but says it is not systematic.
It has promised to crack down on offenders: prison sentences for
using torture have been increased and there are regulations outlawing
the use of force during interrogation. But, while
members
of the security forces are being prosecuted, they are often acquitted
in court. The five officers accused of raping Nazli Top, another
of Polattas's co-defendants, were cleared.
'I was kicked and given electric shocks. For days they gave me
electric shocks to my fingertips, toes and genitals. They raped me
a thousand times. I am not the one who should be standing here. It
is the policemen that rape that shod be here,' she told the court
last week.
Top says she was beaten and raped with a truncheon while in custody
in 1992 when she was three months pregnant. She says she had been
detained for 10 days because police said she resembled a left-wing
suspect.
The pressure on women who speak out was highlighted recently when
eight policemen in the south-east city of Diyarbakirent on trial
for rape and torture. The 32-year-old victim, identified only by
her initials S.O., was too frightened to appear in court because
she said police had threatened her. The officers remain on duty
even though S.O. can identify the officer who raped her over several
days in 1997. She says she saw him because a blindfold slipped from
her face.
--
Press Agency Ozgurluk
In Support of the Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Struggle in Turkey
http://www.ozgurluk.org
DHKC: http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc
_________________________________________________
KOMINFORM
P.O. Box 66
00841 Helsinki
Phone +358-40-7177941
Fax +358-9-7591081
http://www.kominf.pp.fi
General class struggle news:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Geopolitical news:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
__________________________________________________