Newsgroups: bit.listserv.hellas
Date:         Tue, 6 Oct 1992 11:26:44 +0100
Reply-To:     C.A.Constantinides@CITY.AC.UK
From:         C.A.Constantinides@CITY.AC.UK
Subject:      TORTURE & INHUMAN TREATMENT
Comments: To: hellas@uga.cc.uga.edu, macedonia@husc.harvard.edu,
              nea@athena.mit.edu

                    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
                    * TORTURE & INHUMAN TREATMENT *
                    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Relevant Article of the European Convention on Human Rights:
               " No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman  or
                 degrading treatment..."                   <Article 3>.

Charges laid against Turkey: Hundreds of persons,  including  children,
                 women and elderly people, were the victims of systema-
                 tic torture and  SAVAGE and humiliating treatment dur-
                 ing their detention by the Turkish army. They were be-
                 aten; sometimes to the extent of being incapacitated.
                 Many were subjected to tortures such as whipping, bre-
                 aking of the  teeth, knocking their heads on the wall,
                 beating with electrified clubs, extinction of cigaret-
                 tes on their skin, jumping and stepping on their chest
                 and hands, pouring dirty liquids on them,piercing them
                 with bayonets etc.  Many of these detainees were  ill-
                 treated to such an extent  that they became mental and
                 physical wrecks.
                 Among the persons  so treated  were  those deported to
                 and imprisoned in Turkey (of whom most were civilians)
                 During their  transportation  and  detention they were
                 savagely ill-treated,being wounded,beaten,kicked,whip-
                 ped,blindfolded, handfettered punched to the extent of
                 bleeding, etc.
                 These brutalities reached their climax AFTER the cease
                 fire agreements and resolutions of the  U. N. Security
                 Council calling for an end to hostilities.In fact most
                 of these acts were committed when Turkish armed forces
                 were not engaged in any war activities.
                 More than 1,000 statements obtained from witnesses de-
                 scribed their ill-treatment.  Such statements showed a
                 pattern of  behaviour  by the Turkish forces,  proving
                 that the atrocities were  deliberate tactics which the
                 invading forces were to follow. The aim was to terror-
                 ise, destroy and eradicate the Greek population of the
                 Turkish occupied area  so that it would be  vacant  to
                 move in Turks,  thus creating an area populated virtu-
                 ally only by Turks.

Turkey's defense: No answer was given to these charges  and Turkey boy-
                  cotted the Commission's proceedings once her jurisdi-
                  ctional objection was rejected.

Commission's verdict: " The Commission by twelve votes against one,con-
                  cludes that prisoners were  in a number of cases phy-
                  sically ill-treated by injuries  and at least  in one
                  case the death of the victim.  By their severity they
                  constitute "inhuman treatment" and thus violations of
                  Art.3, for which Turkey is responsible under the Con-
                  vention.
                  The Commission by twelve votes against one, concluded
                  that the  withholding  of an  adequate supply of food
                  and drinking water and of  adequate medical treatment
                  from Greek Cypriot prisoners held at Adana and detai-
                  nees in the northern area of Cyprus,  with the excep-
                  tion of Pavlides Garage & Saray prison, again consti-
                  tutes,  in the cases considered as established and in
                  the conditions described,"inhuman treatment" and thus
                  a violation of Art.3, for which Turkey is responsible
                  under the Convention"           <Report, pp.165-166>.
                                <The Commission did not find sufficient
                                <evidence that prisoners  held in these
                                <two locations in the Turkish sector of
                                <Nicosia were guarded by Turkish soldi-
                                <ers -  as opposed to Turkish-officered
                                <Turkish Cypriot "forces"   <para.308>.
                  " The evidence obtained established that, in a consi-
                  derable number of cases prisoners were severely beat-
                  en or otherwise  physically  ill-treated  by  Turkish
                  soldiers"                          <Report,para.393>.
                  The Commission, by twelve votes against one,concludes
                  that the  written  statements submitted by the appli-
                  cant Government constitute indications of  ill-treat-
                  ment by Turkish soldiers of persons not in detention"
                                                       <Report, p.166>.
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