European Mission Unearths Torture Claims in Turkey

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European Mission Unearths Torture Claims in Turkey       By Helena Smith-
The Guardian



Athens -- A European parliament delegation visiting Turkey to check on its
progress in human rights has found "shocking" reports of murders and
mutilations, a British MEP said yesterday. The findings, which come a week
after Brussels launched membership talks with Turkey, highlight the scale
of progress the predominantly Muslim country needs to make in its quest to
join the European Union.

Richard Howitt, part of the mission by the parliament's seven-member human
rights subcommittee, told the Guardian: "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."

The MEP, Labour's European foreign affairs spokesman and a champion of
Turkey's EU accession, said the abuses had been corroborated by human
rights organisations. A trip by the group to Turkey's Kurdish-dominated
south-east had also confirmed allegations that security forces were
reverting to tactics from "the bad old days", although statistics showed
that instances of torture had fallen by around 13% since last year.
Indiscriminate shootings, widespread extrajudicial killings, arbitrary
arrests and instances of masked men raiding homes in the night were
reported to have made a comeback.

"Our sources were very credible and the evidence was corroborated by all
the different groups we spoke to," said the MEP. "They left me in no doubt
of the veracity of the claims."

But Turkey's foreign ministry spokesman, Namik Tan, called the claims
"silly stories". "They are purely fictitious. They have nothing to do with
the truth. You won't find anyone who is credible in Turkey saying such
things."

Mr Howitt said that in September alone 95 people had been arbitrarily
arrested in Van, a town near Iran. Among them was Yusuf Hasar, a
19-year-old suspected Kurdish rebel sympathiser whose body was found last
week after being arrested by police the previous day. The violations have
coincided with an upsurge of violence in Turkey's troubled south-east.
Armed clashes have intensified since rebels lifted a unilateral ceasefire
in June last year.

The delegation, whose findings will form the basis of a report that will
feed into Turkey's membership negotiations, was equally appalled by reports
of violence against women and allegations of body organs being removed by
security forces. Mazumber, a group representing the relatives of torture
victims, told the MEPs that vital organs were routinely removed from the
bodies of ethnic Kurds, presumably as part of the illicit trade in people
trafficking.

Mr Howitt said it was essential the abuses be confronted before Ankara got
into the nitty-gritty of the talks.

Since assuming power in 2002, Ankara's modernising Islamist government has
won plaudits for overhauling the penal code, abolishing the death penalty,
dismantling once-dreaded state security prisons and increasing cultural
rights for ethnic minorities. But Turkish human rights defenders still
speak of a pervasive "culture of violence" in the country's police,
security and judicial forces.