[osint] Rights Activists Confirm Gross Violations

[Bruce Tefft]

 
Very little criticism of terrorists violating human rights.
 
Bruce
 
 
http://www.bianet.org/2005/12/01_eng/news68564.htm
 
Rights Activists Confirm Gross Violations 
The Human Rights Foundation and representatives of the European Parliament
reported rights violations--especially the mutilation of corpses--are
occuring during military operations in Southeastern Turkey due to a lack of
oversight. 
  _  

BIA News Center 
12/10/2005
 Tolga
KORKUT 
  _  

BÝA (Ankara, Mardin, Van) - Human Rights Foundation (IHD) representatives
said that the foundation is recieving reports of corpses being mistreated
and mutilated in military operations in the southeast of Turkey. Hüseyin
Cangir of the IDF's Mardin office and Zeki Yüksel of the IDF's Van office
told Bianet of reports that had reached them about body parts being cut from
the bodies of PKK militants killed in the course of military operations.
Mehdi Perinçek, the IHD advocate responsible for this region, said that
these complaints were similar to many others that had not yet been made
concrete.

Richard Howitt, a British MEP and member of the European Parliament's human
rights subcommittee, told the British newspaper The Guardian that he had
heard reports of "shocking" torture in Turkey on a recent investigative
trip. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Namik Tan called these reports "silly
stories...completely the products of fantasy; they have nothing to do with
the truth. Nobody trustworthy in Turkey can be heard saying such things."

According to the Guardian report, recounted in Hürriyet newspaper, Howitt
said, 
"What we heard was shocking. There were accounts of soldiers cutting off
people's ears and tearing out their eyes if they were thought to be Kurdish
separatist sympathisers ... You can't hear these things without being
emotionally affected."

Alatas: this is a general practice 

IHD General Director Yusuf Alatas, asked for his view on these accusations,
said that the abuse of corpses was "a general practice." He added, "The
shape in which bodies are found will not be known. Limbs are cut off or in
pieces." 

Cangir described the case of a crime in the spring of 2004: "Meaz Resit Reso
was killed in a skirmish at Sirnak. There was no damage to his face in the
skirmish, but his ears and a part of his nose were cut off. This is an
announcement of a crime. We have photographs. His family's claim is that he
was captured while wounded. We are not able to confirm whether the cutting
of his organs took place during the skirmish, or afterwards." Cangir said
there have not been any developments whatsoever concerning the crime. As for
the reply to the queries that he had written to the Military Police General
Headquarters, it claimed that Reso's ears and nose "had been cut off by his
friends."

Zeki Yüksel of the Van branch describes another case that had come to the
attention of the IHD, in which the bodies of several dead PKK militants were
found with their throats and ears cut, along with already being riddled with
bullets. Yüksel said that a mass grave containing an estimated 21 bodies was
found in Bitlis in 2000, and that many of the corpses were headless.
Explaining that the objection made to the Bitlis Public Prosecutor's
decision not to pursue the crime in the Mus Criminal Court had been ignored,
Yüksel said they were thinking of taking the case to the European Court of
Human Rights. 

Lack of oversight 

Alatas warned that military operations are closed to independent oversight:
"Neither human rights nor internal rights rules are applied in battles and
skirmishes that take place in this region-because the military operations
are far from oversight. Answers to questions of who was captured alive, who
was killed and why and how they died, are not forthcoming. Because in this
subject there is no independent ability to oversee conduct during conflict,
all of the operations carry grave flaws." "In general there is an agreement
that the law pays little attention to this. The perceptions of people in the
region are particularly disregarded."

He went on to say, "in areas of warfare, aid organizations and the press are
generally present. They televise military operations. Here, there is nothing
of the sort. The media does not enter the regions where these operations
occur. They are far from the eyes of both the country and the world. Outside
of the press releases of the General Staff, no one knows anything. As long
as there is no oversight, they will feel completely free."

Alatas said that when the psychology of soldiers is considered, the
importance of oversight becomes clear. "These sorts of environments are
extremely provocative. Think of the psychological condition of a soldier
whose friend is killed in a skirmish. Without transparency and oversight,
with such psychological conditions anything can occur. Recall the stories
told by soldiers who have been discharged from service in th

[osint] Rights Activists Confirm Gross Violations

[Bruce Tefft]

 
Very little criticism of terrorists violating human rights.
 
Bruce
 
 
http://www.bianet.org/2005/12/01_eng/news68564.htm
 
Rights Activists Confirm Gross Violations 
The Human Rights Foundation and representatives of the European Parliament
reported rights violations--especially the mutilation of corpses--are
occuring during military operations in Southeastern Turkey due to a lack of
oversight. 
  _  

BIA News Center 
12/10/2005
 Tolga
KORKUT 
  _  

BÝA (Ankara, Mardin, Van) - Human Rights Foundation (IHD) representatives
said that the foundation is recieving reports of corpses being mistreated
and mutilated in military operations in the southeast of Turkey. Hüseyin
Cangir of the IDF's Mardin office and Zeki Yüksel of the IDF's Van office
told Bianet of reports that had reached them about body parts being cut from
the bodies of PKK militants killed in the course of military operations.
Mehdi Perinçek, the IHD advocate responsible for this region, said that
these complaints were similar to many others that had not yet been made
concrete.

Richard Howitt, a British MEP and member of the European Parliament's human
rights subcommittee, told the British newspaper The Guardian that he had
heard reports of "shocking" torture in Turkey on a recent investigative
trip. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Namik Tan called these reports "silly
stories...completely the products of fantasy; they have nothing to do with
the truth. Nobody trustworthy in Turkey can be heard saying such things."

According to the Guardian report, recounted in Hürriyet newspaper, Howitt
said, 
"What we heard was shocking. There were accounts of soldiers cutting off
people's ears and tearing out their eyes if they were thought to be Kurdish
separatist sympathisers ... You can't hear these things without being
emotionally affected."

Alatas: this is a general practice 

IHD General Director Yusuf Alatas, asked for his view on these accusations,
said that the abuse of corpses was "a general practice." He added, "The
shape in which bodies are found will not be known. Limbs are cut off or in
pieces." 

Cangir described the case of a crime in the spring of 2004: "Meaz Resit Reso
was killed in a skirmish at Sirnak. There was no damage to his face in the
skirmish, but his ears and a part of his nose were cut off. This is an
announcement of a crime. We have photographs. His family's claim is that he
was captured while wounded. We are not able to confirm whether the cutting
of his organs took place during the skirmish, or afterwards." Cangir said
there have not been any developments whatsoever concerning the crime. As for
the reply to the queries that he had written to the Military Police General
Headquarters, it claimed that Reso's ears and nose "had been cut off by his
friends."

Zeki Yüksel of the Van branch describes another case that had come to the
attention of the IHD, in which the bodies of several dead PKK militants were
found with their throats and ears cut, along with already being riddled with
bullets. Yüksel said that a mass grave containing an estimated 21 bodies was
found in Bitlis in 2000, and that many of the corpses were headless.
Explaining that the objection made to the Bitlis Public Prosecutor's
decision not to pursue the crime in the Mus Criminal Court had been ignored,
Yüksel said they were thinking of taking the case to the European Court of
Human Rights. 

Lack of oversight 

Alatas warned that military operations are closed to independent oversight:
"Neither human rights nor internal rights rules are applied in battles and
skirmishes that take place in this region-because the military operations
are far from oversight. Answers to questions of who was captured alive, who
was killed and why and how they died, are not forthcoming. Because in this
subject there is no independent ability to oversee conduct during conflict,
all of the operations carry grave flaws." "In general there is an agreement
that the law pays little attention to this. The perceptions of people in the
region are particularly disregarded."

He went on to say, "in areas of warfare, aid organizations and the press are
generally present. They televise military operations. Here, there is nothing
of the sort. The media does not enter the regions where these operations
occur. They are far from the eyes of both the country and the world. Outside
of the press releases of the General Staff, no one knows anything. As long
as there is no oversight, they will feel completely free."

Alatas said that when the psychology of soldiers is considered, the
importance of oversight becomes clear. "These sorts of environments are
extremely provocative. Think of the psychological condition of a soldier
whose friend is killed in a skirmish. Without transparency and oversight,
with such psychological conditions anything can occur. Recall the stories
told by soldiers who have been discharged from service in th