>Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 11:27:59 +0200 >From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > >NZZ Background on World Affairs, September 2000 > >Abuses in Turkey's Prison System > >Harsh Criticism of Justice Minister's Reform Plans > >Amalia van Gent > >Turkey's Ministry of Justice has proposed eliminating long-standing >abuses in the country's criminal justice through a far-reaching reform >of the prison system. The proposal calls for a new type of prison >which will provide prisoners with a higher degree of personal >comfort. But jurists and prisoners suspect that the plan merely masks >a maneuver to totally isolate political dissidents. > >Turkey's Minister of Justice, Hikmet Sami Turk, recently called on the >nation's parliament to give top priority to passing his reform package >for the Turkish prison system during the current legislative >period. The situation in Turkey's prisons is nightmarish, said Turk, >with more prisoners incarcerated than ever before in the history of >the republic. Mafia bosses and terrorist chiefs have taken control of >most of the overcrowded facilities, according to the minister. > >It is true enough that, with a total of 72,523 inmates (as of June >2000), Turkish prisons have reached the limits of their capacity. Yet >400 additional prisoners are added every month, according to the >Ministry of Justice. Many inmates are crammed into cells which were >originally designed to hold 40, but which today must often accommodate >more than 100 prisoners. > >Armed Gangs > >In some prisons, gangs fight bloody battles in the corridors with >weapons smuggled in, for the right price, by willing guards. To cite >just one case: Right-wing nationalist drug baron Alaattin Cakici, from >his cell in Istanbul's Kartal Prison, is reported to have used a >smuggled cellular phone to order vengeance against competitors outside >the prison walls. Cakici's name also cropped up in connection with >revelations about the Susurluk scandal, in the course of which ties >between organized crime, the extreme right-wing movement and high >government officials were made public. Cakici was arrested in France >and extradited to Turkey at his own request. Since then he has caused >smiles on a number of occasions when it became known that he had used >his mobile phone to order meals brought to the prison from famous >restaurants, and had been brought to a private clinic for a routine >health checkup. > >The minister of justice's greatest concern, however, is the country's >11,187 political prisoners. They are shielded from the outside world, >spotlighted only when reports are leaked about torture or prisoner >uprisings. The political prisoners are kept segregated by party >affiliation, held in large cells, where party discipline and >indoctrination are the order of the day. > >Early this summer, Justice Minister Turk remarked, in making his >ambitious reform package public, that the dominance of Mafia bosses >and terrorists must finally be ended. Part of his project is an >amnesty law under which hundreds of petty criminals would be released >to relieve pressure on the overcrowded prison facilities. But the >major element of the reform is a new kind of prison, designated Type >F, which, instead of large cells, would consist of cells to hold no >more than three prisoners each. Eleven such prisons are to be built by >the end of the year and, according to the justice minister's >enthusiastic words, they will provide Turkish prisoners for the first >time with an opportunity to educate themselves, engage in sports or >read books in facility libraries. > >Early this August, members of Tayad, the Istanbul Association of >Prisoners' Families, set out for Ankara to plead with Minister Turk >not to build F-type prisons. Political prisoners are already warning >of solitary confinement and labeling the proposed small cells as >"isolation coffins." According to one of the Tayad mothers, the group >of prisoners' parents wanted to inform the justice minister that their >children would fight against the new F-prisons by going on hunger >strikes. During the last hunger strikes by political prisoners, in >1996, 12 young people died and the health of dozens of others was >permanently impaired. > >Exaggerated Show of Force > >En route to Ankara, the Tayad mother reports, the group's buses were >surrounded by police and gendarmes several times, and some of the >parents were beaten so severely with billy clubs that they had to be >treated in hospital. In Ankara, Justice Minister Turk subsequently >denied all responsibility for the attacks, noting that gendarmes and >police are under the command of the Interior Ministry. Nor was he >interested to learn that political prisoners, almost without >exception, suffer from hepatitis-B and liver ailments, and are >regularly tortured. > >Sema Piskinsut, chairwoman of the Parliamentary Human Rights >Commission, has made a name for herself in recent months because she >has courageously pursued accusations of torture. Thanks to her >persistence, the Commission was able to view a strictly confidential >video about the events in Ankara's Uluncalar Prison last >September. According to an official investigation, at that time 10 >political prisoners in Uluncalar were murdered by other inmates during >a prisoner revolt. But Piskinsut's report called that statement into >question. There were signs, she noted, of exaggerated use of force by >the gendarmes. The faces of some of the victims were totally >disfigured, presumably by acid, while other victims had broken arms, >broken fingers and crushed testicles, all signs of torture but not of >an uprising. According to the report, three of the inmates had gunshot >wounds in their backs. Piskinsut, who carried out investigations at >several police stations and prisons, maintains there can be no doubt >that torture is systematically used in Turkey. > >A Hot October Ahead > >The Istanbul Bar Association has raised legal objections to >construction of the new F-type prisons. The concept of these >facilities is based on Article 16 of the 1999 Anti-Terrorism Law, >according to Yucel Sayman, president of the Bar Association. He >maintains that the plan is to place political prisoners in solitary >confinement. Sayman notes that in Sincan Prison, for example, which is >already the equivalent of a Type F facility, there is no common dining >room for inmates, and whether a prisoner enjoys access to the library >or is permitted to work at anything is up to the prison >guards. Moreover, prison supervisors have the option of shutting off >individual prisoners' water, electricity and heat. A kind of >psychological warfare waged against each individual inmate is >programmed into the system, says Sayman. > >According to Yucel Sayman, no more than 10 percent of the country's >estimated 10,000 Kurdish and left-wing prisoners have been >incarcerated for actual acts. The overwhelming majority have been >imprisoned solely for their political views or allegiance. Jurists, >prominent intellectuals, political prisoners and human rights >organizations have taken up the battle against the government's prison >reform plans, using protest demonstrations and hunger strikes both >inside and outside prison walls. They have promised the minister of >justice a very hot October. > >28 September 2000 / Neue Zurcher Zeitung, 22 September 2000 >-- >Press Agency Ozgurluk >In Support of the Peoples Liberation Struggle in Turkey and Kurdistan >http://www.ozgurluk.org > > _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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