>From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Friday May 26 2:01 PM ET > >Panel Finds Torture by Turkish Cops > >By SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated Press Writer > >ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - A shocking report by a parliamentary human rights >panel documents cases of torture in police stations across Turkey, >contradicting government assertions that abuse is not systematic. > >The six-volume report, obtained Friday by The Associated Press, includes >photographs of torture cells with exposed electrical wires and bars from >which prisoners are suspended. > >The report comes as Turkey is pressing to improve its human rights record, >a key condition that the European Union has set before seriously >considering the country's admission into the group. > >The government has repeatedly said that while cases of torture do occur, >officers guilty of abuses are prosecuted and torture is not systematic. >The parliamentary report, the result of a two-year survey by a 25-member >commission, gives a far different picture. > >It shows pictures of wooden poles placed under prisoners arms and used to >suspend them in the air, metal bars used to beat suspects on the soles of >their feet, and exposed electric cables found in rooms in which the walls >were covered with black leather for soundproofing. > >The commission, led by Sema Piskinsut of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's >Democratic Left Party, said police stations sometimes appeared to have just >been cleaned before its visits. > >``In many cases they were hiding the evidence and showing us the wrong >rooms,'' Piskinsut said. > >She added that in the southeastern town of Batman, evidence of torture that >was found during a 1998 visit was discovered again during a visit Friday. > >Piskinsut said she will demand urgent meetings with the ministers of >justice and interior, and a debate in parliament on the committee's >findings. > >Last year, Ecevit launched a campaign against torture that included >surprise searches of police stations and quicker prosecution. > >Excerpts from the panel's printed report were published Friday on the >front page of Milliyet, a leading Turkish newspaper - the first time that >the committee's findings have been made public in > detail. > >One suspect, who was arrested in 1998 in the southern city of Sanliurfa >for stealing a tractor, said he was given electric shocks on his genitals >during his interrogation at the local police station. Suphi Dildas also >told legislators that he was hung from a ceiling by his feet and dropped >on concrete. > >The report said Dildas, who was interviewed in 1998, had bruises on his >ankles, where he said he was tied, and on his head and forehead. He was >also shivering as he spoke and was unable to stand without the help of >friends, the report said. > >The commission members spoke with more than 100 torture victims and said >that the accounts of the victims matched evidence in police stations. > >``Good morning!'' Husnu Ondul, president of the Istanbul-based Human >Rights Association, said when asked about the committee's findings. ``We >have been saying for years that torture is widespread and systemic in >Turkey.'' > >Ondul said that 594 cases of torture, many involving Kurds and left-wing >activists, were reported last year and that nine people died of torture. > >Activists have said that doctors are often pressured not to report torture >cases. Activists are calling for an end to detention periods in which >suspects in most of the country can be held for four days without access >to a lawyer. In the southeast, where soldiers are battling Kurdish rebels, >detainees can be held for seven days without access to a lawyer. > > >-- >Press Agency Ozgurluk >In Support of the Peoples Libertaion Struggle in Turkey and Kurdistan >http://www.ozgurluk.org > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
