----- Original Message ----- From: "STEVE KACZYNSKI" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > (I wonder if you could forward this. Disappearances in Turkey have not been > confined to the Kurdish south-east or restricted to Kurdish nationalists, > although the report tends to give that impression. S.K.) > > Date: Fri, 2 Feb 2001 12:21:41 +0100 > Kurdish party members 'missing' in police custody > > Human rights group highlights plight of officials > > AP 1 February 2001 > > Two officials of Turkey's Kurdish party went missing after reportedly being > taken in police custody last week, a human rights group said. > > Serdar Tanis, who heads the Peoples' Democracy Party's branch in > southeastern Silopi town, and Ebubekir Deniz, a party member, disappeared > on January 25, after receiving a telephone call to report to a police > station, the Ankara-based Human Rights Association said. > > Authorities in Silopi have, however, denied that the two were taken into > custody. Mehmet Bekaroglu, a member of parliament's human rights > commission, has asked Interior Minister Sadettin Tantan to investigate > their whereabouts. > > Hundreds of Kurdish activists have gone missing, mostly in the 1980s and > early 1990s and the new reports sparked fears of a return to those days. > The disappearances subsided with the defeat of Kurdish militants during the > past few years. A government-commissioned report confirmed that the state > ran death squads in the southeast that killed people suspected of > supporting Kurdish rebels. > > The last person to see the two was party worker Omer Sansur who drove them > to the police station, a statement from the Human Rights Association said. > Party officials became concerned when the two failed to answer their mobile > phones hours after they were dropped off. > > Tanis' father said that paramilitary police officers had threatened his > son, a strong advocate of Kurdish rights, demanding that he resign from the > pro-Kurdish party, widely known by its initials, HADEP. > > The party calls for greater cultural rights for Turkey's estimated 12 > million Kurds. Prosecutors accuse HADEP of being a front for rebels of the > Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK and have asked the constitutional court to > close the party. > > Turkey does not consider Kurds to be a separate minority and bars > broadcasting and teaching in Kurdish. Speaking Kurdish was only legalized > in 1991. > > > > _________________________________________________________________________
