10-12.07.2010 Daily Human Rights Report
(07/053) Operations and clashes in South-east…
A soldier was wounded with the explosion of a land mine in the rural part of the Ömerli District of Mardin Province on 9 July 2010 (Sabah, 10 July).
Two Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKKKurdish Workers' Party ) armed wing People’s Defence Forces (HPGPeople's Defence Forces (armed wing of the PKK) ) militants were allegedly killed in the rural part of Başkale District of Van Province on 10 July 2010 (Vatan, 10 July).
(07/054) Death in prison...
Yunus Durmuş (58) who has been hospitalised due to cerebral haemorrhage from Silivri (İstanbul) Closed Prsion on 5 July 2010 died in hospital on 10 July 2010 (Gündem, 10 July).
(07/055) Explosion in İdil…
Harun Suna (11) was seriously wounded with the explosion of an unidentified object that she had found near Sulak Gendarmerie Headquarter in the vicinity of Sulak Village İdil District of Şırnak Province on 10 July 2010 (Sabah, 11 July).
(07/056) Explosion in Gümüşhane…
Hayri Mevlana Koyun (60) was wounded with the explosion of a land mine as he was walking with his friends in the vicinity of Esenyurt Village of Gümüşhane Province on 11 July 2010 (Cumhuriyet, 11 July).
(07/057) The JITEM case on the murder by unknown assailants in Cizre District…
The trial of seven defendants, including Kayseri Gendarmerie Brigade Commander Col. Cemal Temizöz and former Cizre Mayor Kamil Atağ, suspected of 20 unsolved murders in the Southeast, continued on 9 July 2010 as four witnesses testified in the morning session on 10 July 2010.
Testifying about the murder of Ramazan Elçi in February 1994, his brother Nurettin Elçi said they saw two people with rifles as they were working in their store in the town. He said he was in the back of the store when the people walked inside. “They asked if this was the store of Ramazan and Nurettin Elçi. There were customers inside. My brother answered, ‘Yes.’ They asked everybody to leave the store. I left the store with bottles of oil as if I were a customer. They did not recognize me. I waited across the street. They took my brother and left in a Toros car,” he said.
He also stated that they did not get a response to their petition regarding the kidnapping of Ramazan Elçi, and a few days later went to a morgue as he heard that there was somebody who could be his brother.
When he went to the hospital, he found out that the body had been given to municipal officials to be buried in a pauper’s cemetery. “So I went to the cemetery. They had not buried him yet. I asked to see the body, and I recognized my brother who was shot with a single bullet to the head. Everybody already knew in Cizre that anybody who was taken away in a Toros would not come back. Shortly after that incident, I went to İstanbul out of fear for my life and stayed there for a few years,” he also said.
The head of the court asked Elçi if the people who had entered their store were among the defendants in the court. Elçi said Hıdır Altuğ was there. At the hearing at the Diyarbakır Heavy Penal Court No. 6 Temizöz, Atağ, Tamer Atağ, Fırat Altın (Abdulhakim Güven), Adem Yakin and Kukel Atağ were present in addition to Hıdır Altuğ.
The lawyer representing the plaintiffs in a case against former Kayseri Gendarmerie Battalion Commander Col. Cemal Temizöz has filed a criminal complaint against Chief of General Staff Gen. İler Başbuğ. Tahir Elçi, who is representing victims' families in a case being heard at the 6th High Criminal Court, filed a criminal complaint yesterday with the Diyarbakır Prosecutor's Office, accusing the chief of General Staff of attempting to use his position of authority to influence the prosecutor and judges hearing Temizöz's trial.
Col. Temizöz is facing nine life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murder of several individuals allegedly committed by Temizöz and another colonel between 1993 and 1997. In a recent statement Başbuğ said he was disquieted by the charges against Temizöz, whom he praised as an officer who took on important responsibilities in Turkey's war on terror and gladly risked his life for the purpose.
The Temizöz trial is the culmination of an investigation launched when wells excavated in the town of Silopi were found to contain human remains believed to be the bones of victims of an illegal organization inside the gendarmerie in the 1990s known as JİTEM. The other suspects in the case are former Cizre Mayor Kamil Atağ and his son Tamer Atağ, a Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) member-turned-state-informant Adem Yakın and other informants, including Fırat Altın, Hıdır Altuğ and Kukel Atağ.
The suspects are accused of murder, forming an organization to commit crimes and incitement to murder. The prosecution demands nine consecutive life sentences for Temizöz, seven life sentences for Kamil Atağ and Yakın, two life sentences for Tamer Atağ, three for Altın and Altuğ and life for Kukel Atağ -- all without the possibility of parole. The prosecution claims that Temizöz formed a group comprising village guards, ex-PKK members and special sergeants, ostensibly to fight the PKK, but says the group was instead involved in illegal activities (ANF; Cumhuriyet; Gündem, 9 July).
(07/058) Coercion in prison…
Four convicts who had been exiled from Mersin E Type Closed Prison to Ermenek M Type Closed Prison on 14 May 2010 were sentenced with ban of visits for 3 months and ban of table talk for 6 months each on the grounds that they sang songs in Kurdish reported on 10 July 2010 (Günlük, 10 July)
(07/059) Coercion in prison…
Yılmaz Süncak a prisoner in Sincan F Type Closed Prison No. 2 and who has health problems such as asthma, hernia, defect of eyesight was not medically treated and he was taken to Bolu F Type Closed Prison with saying “you are hospitalised” on 29 June 2010, stated by Sabri Süncak the father Yolmaz Süncak on 10 July 2010 (atilim.org, 11 July).
(07/060) Raid on party building…
Law-enforcement officers raided on Peace and Democracy Party’s (BDPPeace and Democracy Party ) Viranşehir District (of Şanlıurfa Province) Branch office on 9 July 2010 and confiscated some of the documents (Gündem, 9 July).
(07/061) Attack on party building…
An unidentified opened fire in the opening ceremony of the Peace and Democracy Party’s (BDP) Yenimahalle District (of Ankara Province) Branch office on 11 July 2010. Police teams detained the assailant (Gündem, 11 July).
(07/062) Attack on the dormitory of Kurdish students in Sivas Province…
Unidentified person(s) threw petrol bomb to the dormitory in which students from high school in Diyarbakır Province have been accommodating in Sivas Province in the framework of “Soul Bridge” Travel Programme of the Ministry of National Education on 9 July 2010. A student was wounded by hitting his head due to the panic during the attack. Students left Sivas Province after the attack (Vatan, 9 July).
(07/063) Detentions and arrests…
Seven –five of them juveniles- out of the eleven –nine of them juveniles- detainees who had been detained in Seyhan District of Adana Province on 7 July 2010 on the grounds that they threw stones to law-enforcement officers were arrested on 9 July 2010 (Gündem, 9 July).
Eight people who had been detained in connection with the funeral of Mehmet Ali Melik, HPG militant that was killed in the attack on the gendarmerie headquarters in Bağdere Village in Silvan District of Diyarbakır Province on 22 June 2010, were arrested on 9 July 2010 (Gündem, 9 July).
Şahin İmren who had been detained on the grounds that he made victory sign in Hilvan District of Şanlıurfa Province on 10 July 2010 was arrested on charges of “making propaganda of an illegal organisation” on 11 July 2010 (Gündem, 11 July).
