To All Living Things
Last Week's Column

Amnesty Action:
Fear of "Disappearance"/Fear of Torture
by Kathy Gay

his week’s action from Amnesty International concerns the "disappearance" of a young man aged 17 and his uncle in Turkey. They were taken from the uncle’s home in the village of Demirli (local name: Temiran), province of Diyarbakir, on November 2, 1996. The uncle, reportedly wanted by the authorities for his alleged contact with the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), was detained and taken away first. Shortly afterwards, two village guards returned to the house and took the young man away. Reportedly, he is not a member of any organization or political party and has never been detained before. No weapons were found in the house.

Members of the young man’s family made inquiries into his whereabouts the following day. They were told by village guards that he had been brought into the gendarmerie but they did not know what happened to him after that. Later inquiries to Diyarbakir State Security Court resulted in denials that the young man was being held. Two additional petitions received the same response. The uncle’s whereabouts also remain unknown.

Specific information about this action is included in the sample letter that follows.

Background Information

Amnesty International is gravely concerned for the safety of these two men. Turkish authorities have released no information about them in spite of Amnesty’s letter to the Justice Minister of Turkey on December 13, 1996 regarding these and other cases of alleged "disappearance." Fears for their safety have been heightened by the recent discovery of the bodies of three Kurdish men taken into custody between November 29 and December 9.

People suspected of offenses under the Anti-Terror law in Turkey can be held in police custody without access to family, friends or legal counsel for up to 30 days in the ten provinces currently under State of Emergency and for 15 days in the rest of Turkey.

When not being interrogated, detainees are held in cramped, airless and unsanitary conditions. With no access to the outside world they are at the mercy of their interrogators. Torture is often applied to extract confessions, to elicit information about illegal organizations, to intimidate detainees into becoming police informers or as informal punishment for presumed support of illegal organizations. Torture methods include being stripped naked and blindfolded, hosing with pressurized ice-cold water, hanging by the arms or wrists bound behind the victim’s back, electric shocks, beating on the soles of the feet, death threats and sexual assault.

Procedures laid down in the Turkish Criminal Procedure Code for the prompt and proper registration of detainees and for notification to their families are almost universally ignored. Lack of prompt registration and notification is extremely distressing for the families of detainees and creates the conditions in which "disappearances" and torture can occur.

How you can help

Please send a letter to the Chief Prosecutor at Diyarbakir State Security Court immediately if possible, but no later than February 15, 1997. (If you are an American, please Turkey’s Ambassador on your letter.) You may use the sample letter linked below or use it as a model to write your own letter. If you choose to use the sample letter, please cut off or delete all website information at the very top of the letter. If you choose to write your own letter, make sure that it is politely worded and non-partisan (i.e., not used as a vehicle for political expression). Care must be taken to ensure that nothing is written that will cause harm to the two men. Be sure to include both your name and address, as well as the date, on the letter.

U.S. airmail postage to Turkey is 60 cents.

Questions?

If you have any questions, just post a message to me (Kathy Gay) at the Pub, and I will respond as soon as I can. I greatly appreciate your interest and support.

To see the sample letter for this action, please click here.

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Kathy Gay is a vegan, and has been a member of Amnesty International for nearly 10 years, where she has worked on numerous campaigns. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a business analyst for a leading California bank.

Kathy's column, To All Living Things, is a regular feature of VegSource On-Line Magazine.