WHAT KIND OF PRISONS? IN CONNECTION WITH THIS WE ARE SENDING A TAYAD BROCHURE TAYAD BROCHURE - FIRST FILE TAYAD BROCHURE - WHAT MUST A PRISON BE LIKE THAT CONFORMS TO HUMAN RIGHTS? INTRODUCTION It started with the poem "If I were to end up behind prison walls." Have you never been in prison? Have you never had someone close to you end up in prison? A son, a daughter, a brother or sister or anyone you love? If so, what did they experience in the prisons, do you definitely know what effect it had on them, if not, perhaps you feel responsibility for them, will observe, learn, debate and otherwise show a reaction. Perhaps you know but do not accept the reality, are not convinced, you dispute it. Whether you want to argue with them or not, we want to add our thoughts to yours. The prisons are a wound on the body politic of this society. Some days a bleeding wound, some days it is a matter of decay, some days it explodes, some days it becomes inflamed. But it never heals. In this country, nobody is permitted to heal the wound, the opportunity is not given to them. Whenever a crust forms over the wound it is ripped off, or it is scratched and starts bleeding. The authorities who open the wound and cause it to bleed say that OUR AUTHORITY HAS BEEN UNDERMINED IN THE PRISONS. NOBODY IS ASKING WHAT WE ARE OR WHAT OUR JOB IS. THE TERRORISTS HAVE TAKEN THE INITIATIVE FROM US. THE TERRORISTS ARE MAKING ALL THE RULES. THIS MUST STOP! WITHOUT DELAY. These are the kinds of opinions they express. Such opinions are heard when you watch television or read the newspapers, but everybody knows that REVOLUTIONARIES HAVE THEIR HEADS CUT OFF, HAVE THEIR ARMS SEVERED AND THROWN TO DOGS, ARE LEFT TO WRITHE AROUND IN INDESCRIBABLE PAIN. They have their opinions, and it is necessary to put them forward. THE PRISON BATHHOUSES TURNED INTO A BLOODBATH, THE PRISON CORRIDORS ARE COVERED IN BLOOD, DORMITORIES ARE SET ON FIRE. And we mothers, fathers, spouses, siblings, children and relatives of political prisoners gather at the gates of prisons. We know that if any smoke comes from the roof of a prison that it is our children who are burning, if slogans are chanted from the cold concrete of the prison, we know that a life-and-death battle is in progress. They are our children, our life, our future, our past, what we have laboured for. They are behind the walls of the prison, there are pointed stakes on top of the walls and behind them there are soldiers wearing helmets and carrying shields and guns. They are robocops. There are fire brigade vehicles, ambulances and on this side of the walls there police, both uniformed and plainclothes. When you see all this you can imagine what is going on inside. When such things happen we know that very soon blood will flow inside and bodies will be carried out before our eyes which will be unrecognisable. It will be impossible to recognise their faces, eyebrows and other features. It is impossible to detect their breathing any more. They will tell you, "This is your son," or "this is your daughter," but our eyes will not be able to recognise our sons and our daughters. If they allowed us to touch the dead bodies, we will not be able to pat them affectionately like we did in years past because we can no longer recognise them. We know this situation from past experience. VERY SOON our wailing will be heard everywhere, in the sky and on the ground. The hearts of our mothers will be completely broken, and our fathers ' world will be darkened. Today or the future cease to have any meaning after that. Anger and revenge will take the place of injustice and immorality. We know this situation. We know colourful TV screens will start to tell lies and they will say, "They were digging tunnels," or "They had guns," and "They are running the organisation from inside," "They were sending orders to their organisation," "They were planning bloody actions which will turn Turkey upside down," "They were killing each other - they have no security of life," "They were ignoring the authority of the state," - there is no limit to the lies that will be told, BECAUSE THE TONGUE IS JUST SO MUCH FLESH AND THERE IS NOTHING TO STOP IT FROM UTTERING LIES. We know this situation. And after that newspapers will pass the message, that "we have to stabilise the state's authority in the prisons," "without bringing the prisons into line, we cannot bring this country into line," "we want to join the European Union, prisons are the only obstacle to this." We know this situation from our past experience. All the time our intellectuals and writers and philosophers will belatedly come to write something on this matter. Our artists will start to say something. too late, as usual. "There are no human rights," they will say, timidly and half-heartedly. "It is a shame for democracy," they will show anger towards our mothers and our relatives, and they will say, "You caused this shame," and they will say, "This is against human rights," but they will start to criticise and discuss the killing and massacring from the point of view of morality later on. IN THE END Related and unrelated, responsible and not responsible, experienced and inexperienced, government officials, bureaucrats, technocrats, writers, intellectuals, nearly everyone will come together and they will argue about the prisons problem. They will try to find a new solution and without remembering what happened, THEY WILL ACT AS IF ALL THIS HAPPENED IN ANOTHER COUNTRY, OR THESE THINGS DID NOT HAPPEN UNDER ORDERS FROM THE UTHORITIES. In every solution they put forward, our wounded bodies will bleed more. All the time they will put forward another type of prison - 'L' Type, Special Type, 'E' Type, 'F' Type - BUT THE SOLUTION is always a new type of prison. This time the problem will be solved, they will say. It will be more contrary to humanitarian values. All of them will target the same thing. Behind the walls they have to SURRENDER AND BE MADE TO SURRENDER. They will look for a "solution" but they will not ask the people who stand in front of the prisons, who are the relatives of political prisoners, and who are arrested, beaten up, immorally searched, dragged along the ground and made to suffer whenever they go to visit, what they think about the matter. We are saying that, if there is a PROBLEM IN THE PRISONS OF THIS COUNTRY, we say there is, and we say we are one side of this problem, and WE HAVE GOT THINGS TO SAY AND WE HAVE THOUGHTS ABOUT THE SOLUTION, AND WE HAVE THE POWER TO EXPRESS A SOLUTION. To our friends, who are beside us, who are shoulder to shoulder with us, we are calling upon them to bring a solution, and we tell people, who are opposed to us and who do not want to listen to us, who become upset by the fact of our existence, about democracy, about human rights, about the consequences of being human, and that we are struggling for this. We will speak and make them listen to us. END OF THE FIRST SECTION SECOND SECTION WHAT SORT OF PROBLEM ARE THE PRISONS? There is a prisons problem in this country. Who is saying this? With all institutions, with all MPs, with all cabinet ministers, the government, commissions, the military, police.. Who is saying this? The ruling classes, industrialists, businessmen. Who is saying this? Professional bodies like the Medical Association, the Bar, universities, lecturers, intellectuals, journalists, artists, workers, the union of civil servants, democratic people's organisations, human rights organisations, relatives of political prisoners and people who are in prison and are assumed to be the centre of the problem. In particular, political prisoners and convicts. Everyone agrees that prisons are a problem. What sort of problem? We can look at the prisons over the last five years - where our sons and daughters, the political prisoners and convicts - are staying and what happened in them. September 21, 1995, in Buca, "an operation to guarantee prison authority" was carried out. Three prisoners were murdered, dozens were wounded. On January 4, 1996, in Umraniye Prison there was an operation, on the pretext of a rebellion by prisoners, four prisoners were murdered, dozens were wounded. On September 24, 1996 in Diyarbakir, another operation to "stabilise authority" was carried out, and 10 prisoners were murdered. Dozens were wounded. On September 26, 1999, in Ankara Ulucanlar Prison, an operation was carried out at midnight. The excuse was that the prison dormitory was overcrowded and the prisoners had demanded more space. Again, 10 prisoners were murdered, dozens wounded and sent into exile in other prisons, and the bodies of the dead were torn to pieces and their skulls fractured with metal pipes, hooks, wooden beams, and faces, eyes, hands and feet were bruised and discoloured. The skin of their faces was removed as far as the neck and their eyebrows and eyes and mouths were distorted. People who knew them could not identify them. They could not look at them, they could not touch them. Those who carried out this massacre were not brave enough to show the bodies to the relatives. What sort of massacre was it that the families and friends of the prisoners could not even identify the bodies? What sort of massacre was it when a delegation of experts watched the video of the massacre and did not feel shame? What sort of authority was capable of carrying out such an atrocious massacre against people who had no weapons with which to defend themselves other than their slogans and their fists within the four walls of the prison? On July 5, 2000 in Burdur, another operation was carried out, the excuse was the need to "stabilise the rule of the authorities" and to "regain the prestige of the state". They tore the wall down with a bulldozer, they tore the arm off a prisoner and carried out rapes. And the prisoners who gave evidence of this attack were themselves taken to court by the authorities. But not the torturers. This is the kind of country that Turkey is.Nothing happens to torturers, but it is their victims who are taken to court. All people in this country spend days talking about the justice and morality of this governm ent. FIVE inhuman operations like this have been carried out in the space of five years. This state declared war against prisoners who are behind bars, concrete walls and barbed wire and thousands of soldiers and civilian security forces surround them and view them from watch towers, and this government has guaranteed by law the security of prisoners' lives. But with bullets and bombs, they have torn down walls, sprayed foam and chemicals to kill prisoners, and killing was not enough for them, they tortured survivors with saws and butchered people with knives which had been dipped in special chemicals. This was not enough. They massacred, committed rape and a total of 30 people were murdered in such operations. Twenty of our children died during hunger strikes in 1982, 1984 and 1996. When the state was arguing about this type or that type, this method or that method, people died during hunger strikes to prevent such massacres. Which history book has written all this down? Which political lesson gave space to such events? Which political scientists discovered all those things? We are asking, what kind of mentality could produce such a thing? To declare war on their own prisoners? To kill or disable prisoners when they are responsible for the security of their lives and welfare? More of our children died in every attack. Dozens have become disabled. PRISONS MEAN TORTURE AND DEATH It's not possible to count how many prisoners have been quietly murdered. This was done by not taking them to hospital, preventing them from having hospital treatment or operations, or else only after severe delays. Today, thousands of prisoners have permanent illnesses because of living in unhealthy places which prevent them from receiving treatment. The rulers see prisons as a centre of destruction. This is the fascist mentality that says, "SHOULD WE FEED THEM RATHER THAN HANG THEM?" It is the mentality of the fascist rulers which says, "TO DESTROY THEM WOULD COST US A MAXIMUM OF THREE KILOS OF CYANIDE". It is the outrageously inhuman mentality which raped prisoners, tore off a prisoner's arm in Burdur to "restore the prestige of the state". Yes, this and similar examples show the nature of mainstream politics practised by the rulers, which bring insecurity and harm to the lives of thousands of people in prison. IT IS THIS THAT IS THE PROBLEM IN THE PRISONS. This is the reality. It has nothing to do with what people of good will wish. At the centre of the problem is that every single square millimetre of this system is UNJUST AND CREATES CRIME. Everything practised by this system creates crime and criminals. But they are looking for crime and criminals in the wrong place - the prisons. CRIME: in every part of the country, mafia, gangs, bribery, robbery, injustice, illegality, extortion, massacres, disappearances, are able to proceed freely CRIMINALS who made millions of people hungry and homeless, who create major gulfs between the classes, from education to health, who encourage immorality and degeneration, who close all doors to people who are demanding their rights, workers, civil servants, students, peasants, and who engage in torture, repression and terror against people who live in shantytowns, who organise violence against people - these, ie. the government, are guilty. The system based on terror, repression and injustice has no right to build prisons, but every day they build different models and numbers of prisons. The system vomits crime like a critically ill person might vomit bile. But it proposes that more prisons be built as a solution. And they allocate trillions of Turkish lira for this purpose. We want to ask those who say there is democracy in this country, who say law is above everything else, WHAT ABOUT THOSE PRISONS? WHAT DO THEY TELL YOU? DO THEY TELL YOU THAT THE LAW IS ABOVE EVERYTHING? IS IT DEMOCRACY? DO THEY RESPECT HUMAN RIGHTS? A poet said, "None of them in reality. Night comes earlier to the prisons, and the night patrols of the torturers and murderers' teams start." Prisons in Turkey are the mirror of the system. They show the naked truth and reality. The system treats everyone as though they have no legal and humanitarian rights, rather than as people who are paying for their crime by staying in an enclosed area. The system wants them to feel regret, and if they don't they must be punished. The perpetrator of the crime treats victims as criminals. To take his or her freedom is not enough for the government, the government wants their political thoughts to be abandoned and threatens them in an attempt to make them abandon their beliefs. That is why in every operation they carry out, they say to prisoners, "Surrender or die." In the last 20 years, they shouted the same command to our children and our relatives. "Surrender or die." In the last 20 years, under juntas or under civilian governments or coalitions, the same command is issued by their megaphones. "Feel repentance, abandon your ideology, give up your political identity, surrender or die." This politics was formulated by the September 12, 1980 junta, which tried to introduce prison uniforms, and after that they tried to introduce new types of prison, mainly involving the use of coffin cells. To REFORM the prisons, the Minister of Justice, Hikmet Sami Turk, announced a "TREATMENT MODEL". What did this involve? Accepting strip searches, informing on one another and signing statements of repentance. Taking away their honour, becoming individualistic, accepting every physical and moral attack by the government, and losing your political identity. The head of the prisons, Ali Suat ERTOSUN, says that "the cells are a necessity. And we will give privileges to those people who accept our practices." What practices? We are asking, what practices? There is no answer to the question. Because these practices will not be legitimate ones, just like all the practices they have engaged in up to now. These origin of these practices lies, in short, in the MHP A teams, and these are meant to bring practices in the prisons and the prison administration into line with fascist practices. That is, "conditions for leading a social life" will be a kind of doormat for those living in the cells putting up with every form of torture, being spied upon in their cells, being turned into collaborators and being turned into "independents" (note: a kind of intermediate category between a resister and a collaborator in the prisons). To reject this, it is not necessary to be revolutionary or progressive or democratic. All these practices must not be accepted, must be rejected, a dam must built to stem the flow of these practices, for they reject the slightest respect for human rights, they degrade human honour and they destroy the human characteristics of the people who live in this country. END OF THE SECOND SECTION TAYAD BROCHURE - THIRD FILE III SECTION HOW DO WE APPROACH THE PROBLEMS IN THE PRISONS? WHAT IS BEING SUGGESTED? THE STATE says that - "Reform" cannot be carried out of the overcrowded existing dormitories/ we will carry out reforms. - In the dormitories, there is repression by organisations, the leaders of organisations interfere in everything and get entangled with everyone. This is why people cannot meet their lawyers or their families/ we will get rid of the organisations. - The terrorist organisations have turned the prisons into "training camps"/ we will not turn a blind eye to this - Inside they are continuing to propagate their thoughts, reading and writing whatever they wish/ we will not permit this. To do this, we will isolate them. We will lock them in ONE-PERSON ROOMS. The doors will be opened from outside, their whole life long people will not be able to look in someone's eyes or hear their voices. THEY WILL OBEY, all you have to do is give the order for them to OBEY. If they are on their BEST BEHAVIOUR, the authorities will of course look positively on this, perhaps such prisoners might be able to influence a few other inmates in the RIGHT DIRECTION. THE REMEDY IS THE 'F' TYPE PRISONS, THE SOLUTION IS THE 'F' TYPE CELLS. That is, a policy of ISOLATION. They say that their rights are supported by the anti-terror law. This law defends isolation of POLITICAL PRISONERS, explains it and programmes it. They say that ISOLATION type prisons conform to the standards of Europe, are a condition of EU membership and are needed to acquire European characteristics. THEY CLAIM THAT ONE-PERSON ISOLATION PRISONS WILL BE THE SOLUTION TO ALL PROBLEMS. Under the influence of such thought, INTELLECTUAL CIRCLES say: Criminals will tend to behave like criminals. If they were to take decisions on their own lives they would accept what was pleasing to them and reject what was not, and start rebellions and whip up incidents. This is not good for our EU membership plans and our position in the world. - They are playing games in the shadow of our state, killing people, destroying one another's right to life, it would be good for them if they were put in one-person ROOMS. They would have hot water, white-painted walls, these one-person rooms would be a kind of luxury. - Staying in a collective environment, they cannot be reclaimed for society, and their potential to commit crime grows.WHERE IS THE STATE when it should be providing such things, is it asleep? AND SOME PEOPLE say: - The dormitories are very crowded, this threatens the health of human beings. - Losing individual freedoms, not being able to live as you wish, not being able to think independent thoughts, this is why individuals need to be isolated. (Note: some commentators view the political organisations among the prisoners as compromising prisoners' individual freedom) - Not being able to grow flowers, not being able to put up the pictures they want, not being able to eat and drink what they want, not being able to dream as they wish. The best thing to do with people in prison is to put them in ONE-PERSON ROOMS. But they must be given SHARED AREAS where they can see each other, converse, play chess, display interest in the fine arts, read books and engage in sport. If the prisoners are well-behaved, the state will be a little bit fatherly towards them. AND THERE ARE THOSE WHO HAVE OUR THOUGHTS AND SAY. The problem is not one of overcrowded dormitories, nor of the health situation of human beings, nor individual freedom. If the problem was all these things, how much care and worry would there really be, the prisons would be a rose garden, there would be no problems, no rebellions, none of our children would be slaughtered in the middle of the night, no torture encountered during operations. EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT And if they do not know it they must learn it The problem is the political thoughts of our sons and daughters, the reasons why they live and the form of life they live, and their refusal to abandon them. Our children's ideas, personalities, struggle for their own honour, which they waged against torture, persecution, repression and injustice and against attacks on the people. Because of our children not repenting, not saying, "I am a criminal," they refused to bow down before the system and expressed their voice in the form of organisation. At the moment the centre of opposition to the state is the prisons. According to the state, the prisoners must be silent, say they repent, and THE WHOLE PEOPLE MUST BE SILENT. Before this, when the system was attacking the whole of society it focused on the prisons. The state created various kinds of prison projects; they were using expressions like "treatment" while they declared what lay behind their practices by means of the megaphones and mouths of the police. "SURRENDER OR DIE!!!" We tell everyone who says that the cells are a SOLUTION, that: OUR CHILDREN'S LIVES HAVE NO SECURITY. After every operation our sons and daughters and relatives would be killed, three, five or ten at a time. You are right, our children's entire bodies are at risk, after every operation arms are ripped off, hands are injured, legs are broken, their eyes are gouged out, heads are swollen and they have been raped. YOU ARE RIGHT, OUR CHILDREN HAVE NO FREEDOM. They are not given the books they want, on the grounds that they are "forbidden", nor can they meet freely with their lawyers, nor with families nor relatives. Every prison visit is a form of torture for those who have been arrested or detained. This state organises operations against the prisons because they think that the prisons are the base of illegal organisations. The state called the operations "operations to make them surrender dead". And because they saw the prisons as a base of illegal organizations, they were treating families, visitors and lawyers as members of illegal organisations. In addition, there were searches, bans on visits, bans on receiving information, arrests or tailing of visitors. In some prisons they are the welding the doors shut and are preventing the prisoners from even seeing a small piece of sky the size of a hand. In some prisons the management were only letting prisoners into the dining area, corridor and exercise area for a few hours. In some prisons the prisoners cannot put up photographs or other belongings. For months and months the prisoners cannot be visited because of the types of searches the authorities want, or because visits are simply forbidden. YOU ARE RIGHT, OUR CHILDREN INDEED ARE LIVING IN INHUMAN CONDITIONS. Go and see any kind of prisons, and you will see that the mafia chiefs and bandit chiefs and embezzlers live in luxury dormitories and can buy anything, like in a luxury hotel, and the prison authorities are even leaving dormitories empty as if for VIPs, while the political prisoners are put in overcrowded dormitories, sometimes 100 in a dormitory meant for 50. In these dormitories every single disease turns into an epidemic within a short period, the heating never works, there is no direct sunlight and any windows that exist are covered over and blocked with barbed wire. There is no air, it is always damp and in some of these prisons the lights are on for 24 hours a day. Neither in the night nor the day can prisoners sleep in darkness, because of the assumption that prisoners will escape if the light is turned off. In such prisons there is no hot water, the prisoners must wash in cold water in both summer and winter. The hot water supply comes from the military's pipes, and it goes to mafia prisoners or to the accommodation of the prison management, but not to political prisoners. In these prisons the state gives some money for prisoners' food, but generally it is not enough because there are too many prisoners. These prisoners are sometimes not allowed to receive the food their relatives bring. If you have money you can get by in prison, if not you will have problems. In these prisons sick people cannot go to hospital. Sometimes they can go the hospital, but they are unable to afford the medication. The severely ill prisoners will die if they are not allowed to go to hospital. The budget for health is being plundered, and in short, there is nothing human about these prisons, except that human beings live there. And if there is anything human about them, it has only been achieved by resistance inside the prisons. The revolutionary prisoners' role in the economic and democratic struggle in this country cannot be ignored. Under every government, the first thing has always been to attack the rights of the prisoners. They want to destroy everything that the prisoners obtained to make their lot more human. YOU ARE RIGHT, THE SECURITY OF OUR CHILDREN'S LIVES MUST BE GUARANTEED. Their health should not be endangered even if they live in prisons, THEY MUST HAVE RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS. Human living conditions must be provided. This is the measure of it! Whether ordinary or political prisoners, all those who are arrested or detained should live under humane conditions and they must have all human rights and freedoms. This is not a luxury, this is a very simple and necessary request. What we want is for our children to live in the prisons as human beings. That is why our children must live in an atmosphere of togetherness. During attacks, torture and massacres, our children's only guarantee is their togetherness and solidarity. Because once in the cells, there is no guarantee of what will happen to anyone. They have destroyed very large prisons as though they were scrap and rubbish and killed the prisoners, so what might they be able to do to prisoners who are in small cells? Under this plan, in these small cells every kind of killing or extra-judicial execution can be carried out in secrecy and obscurity. These attacks and massacre projects conform with the policies of a fascist mentality. It goes on continuously, and the prisoners' only guarantee is that they live together in a collective fashion. The prisoners' life is a communal one and this enables them to survive. If they are isolated in cells, perhaps half may die because they do not receive enough to live on. From food to books, everything is communal. In this invironment, there is no poverty, loneliness and deprivation. For example, if a person is arrested, tortured and then brought to prison, they are hungry, tired and alone. Who will look after them? Who will look after a disabled prisoner? Who will put the food in front of them? Their friends, of course. That is why communal practices and lives are a necessity in the prisons. You will read, you will write, you will discuss, you will compare beliefs, but how, if you are in a cell? You need a lawyer but have no money. You are poor, so how will you act except in solidarity with others? Under these conditions, there are no rich and no poor. What they have they have in common. Is it this that the authorities want to destroy? Human beings are social creatures. And these social creatures must carry on their society. These are decent and humane requests. If you do not accept them the scenario we have seen over the last 20 years will become even worse. END OF THE THIRD SECTION TAYAD BROCHURE - FOURTH AND LAST FILE IV SECTION HOW CAN A HUMANE LIFE BE CREATED IN THE PRISONS? We know what the authorities have said on this subject. THE CELL-TYPE PRISONS, OR THE 'F' TYPES. These prisons are ARCHITECTURALLY DESIGNED to isolate prisoners, strip them of their identity. The cells are putting in place a system in which somebody will be on their own for a very long time, without eating together, without speaking to others, no culture, no sport - this alone is a torture method. The 'F' Types must be abandoned. The building of prisons is progressing at speed, and in every prison there is a reaction against the 'F' Types, and a hunger strike is going on. What does this show? The 'F' Types are not the solutio and they will merely exacerbate the problems. It means more blood will be shed, there will be more injured and wounded, and there will be more injuries on the agenda. Are we saying that there should be no prisons? Under these conditions and in this system, we know that saying this is not very logical, but we are saying that prisons could be more humane and can be organised and built to expedite humane living conditions. All right, you can say that many new prisons have been built, and what will we do with them? The main thing is that those prisons should never be opened. But as a solution, the prisons and the conditions of detention can be rearranged along more humane lines, on the basis of changing them by assuring the prisoners' security of life and their right to lead communal lives as social creatures. They must be supplied with the necessities of life and cultural necessities - this is itself a social necessity. For this, THE PRISONS MUST BE REORGANISED TO SUIT THE MOST BASIC HUMAN NEEDS 1. The cell-type prisons designed for isolation, whether they are one person or three-person cells, must be destroyed or their construction halted if they have not been completed. At the very least, 12-person dormitories must be built. 2. Every dormitory should have a communal dining place and room where they can eat together or watch television. These dining areas and dormitories should not be closed or locked down at any time of the day. 3. Exercise areas meant for just one person, two persons or three must be destroyed or merged into a larger area. Four 12-person dormitories of should have a joint common area for exercise. The doors to this area should be open, depending on the time of year, with free access to and from the dormitories. 5. The corridors between these dormitories should be open to communal use. 6. The dormitory doors should be open at six o'clock in the morning and must be open until evening. During these hours, relations between dormitories and visits between them should not be prevented and it should be possible to visit between dormitories. 7. Social, sporting and cultural activities of the detainees should be guaranteed through the creation of sporting halls, libraries and meeting halls. 8. Detainees and convicts should have living areas which are lit, heated and possessing the means to keep them clean. There should be a bathhouse, showers, piped hot water and radiators, as well as kitchen facilities for preparing and cooking food, and there should be no restrictions on their use. 9. Lawyers' visits and family visits should be provided with a suitable area in which to take place. And there should be no obstruction of such visits. There should be no iron bars and glass in between. There should be face-to-face meetings which are not overheard. 10. Inside each prison, an infirmary should be set up. 11. Relations with the outside world should be accepted as a need. The corridors should contain public telephones. Means of communication with families and lawyers should be guaranteed. 12. Technological developments must be followed, scientific and intellectual work must be accepted as a need, and libraries and computers must be provided. ON THE BASIS OF HUMAN NEEDS, THE MANAGEMENT AND PRACTICES IN THESE PRISONS SHOULD MEET EVERY KIND OF SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND CULTURAL NEED. THE PRISONERS ' AND CONVICTS' RIGHTS SHOULD BE GUARANTEED. For this, 13. Threats to the security of life of prisoners and attempts to isolate them must end. All laws, statutes, constitutions and directives aimed at punishing prisoners over and above their sentence must be abolished. ALL THESE NEGATIVE ASPECTS DERIVED FROM THE ANTI-TERROR LAW MUST BE ABOLISHED. 14. The TRIPARTITE PROTOCOL which is the source of prisoners' problems regarding security of life, health and living problems must be abolished. 15. POLITICAL PRISONERS' RIGHTS MUST BE RECOGNISED and their behaviour governed by this status. 16. The security of life of prisoners and convicts, their right to communal living and their social rights must be guaranteed as RIGHTS OF ORGANISATION AND RIGHTS OF REPRESENTATION. THE ORGANISATION OF PRISONERS AND CONVICTS MUST BE INSTITUTIONALISED. These institutions must allow prisoners the right to a say in their own living conditions. 17. Pressure to create collaborators and repenters should be lifted. Prisoners and convicts should not be subject to persecution and harassment aimed at making them into COLLABORATORS and REPENTERS. 18. Every kind of harassment, every kind of dishonourable search of relatives, every kind of barrier to visits must be ended or removed, open visits must be a right. 19. Every obstacle to prisoners' and convicts' scientific research or quest for knowledge, reading, education and following the day's news must be removed, all obstacles to receiving books, newspapers, magazines, television and radio broadcasts must be removed. 20. Prisoners' and convicts should not have any restriction on their rights to a defence, those tried as part of the same proceedings should be allowed to meet each other, and consultation with lawyers should not be interfered with. 21. To resolve their health problems, transport to hospital and surgical operations and treatment expenses, as well as dishonourable searches should be stopped, all expenses should be paid by the state. 22. Security of life in prisons, social, cultural and political rights should be regularly checked by representatives in delegations from human rights organisations and the families of prisoners and convicts, and representatives of prisoners' organisations should be present. 23. The prisons should be open to control by international human rights' bodies and the organisations of prisoners and convicts must be able to take part. Our requests are simple, comprehensible, humane and NECESSARY. Human rights and the right to live as human beings must be for everyone. But having these accepted is a part of the struggle for democracy in this country. People on the street have no security of life in this country, a small amount of agitation on the street is seen as a crime in this country, torture in this country is seen as an "isolated" incident. We are up to the knees in injustice, there is "freedom to kill", Tortures and massacres are legally guaranteed in this country, It is a crime to search for rights, IN A COUNTRY, To obtain security of life, and guarantee a human and honourable life an ORGANISED AND COMMUNAL LIFE IS NECESSARY. IT IS A LEGITIMATE RIGHT TO RESIST REPRESSION, TORTURE AND MASSACRES. TORTURE, MASSACRES AND INCIDENTS IN THE PRISONS are not an isolated result of all this. They are the result of the policies of the government and those who are in league with them or who act as the implementers of their policies, and we want to shout this to everybody. THE REALITY IN THE PRISONS MUST CHANGE. AS SOON AS POSSIBLE THE HEART OF SOCIETY, THE CONSCIENCE OF SOCIETY MUST CHANGE BEFORE AN EVEN DEEPER WOUND IS INFLICTED. The following days are pregnant with the possibility of new attacks and massacres. Approximately 1,000 political detainenees and convicts are resisting the 'F' Type prisons, and there is an INDEFINITE HUNGER STRIKE, WHICH WILL BE TURNED INTO A DEATH FAST. The memory of 1996 is still present in everyone's mind. Before new lives are lost, to stop these attacks, it is possible to come up with a new and humane solution. Come together with us, take this step and let us prevent more deaths. THE TAYAD FAMILIES Adres : �rdek Kasap Mahallesi, �brahim M�teferrika Cad. Lale Apartman� No: 6/1 F�nd�kzade Fatih-�STANBUL Tel/Fax : 0090 212 5323700 �nternet sitesi: hucreiskencedir.cjb.net E-Mail Adresi : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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