Newsgroups: bit.listserv.hellas
Date:         Tue, 6 Oct 1992 11:26:04 +0100
Reply-To:     C.A.Constantinides@CITY.AC.UK
From:         C.A.Constantinides@CITY.AC.UK
Subject:      DEPRIVATION OF LIBERTY
Comments: To: hellas@uga.cc.uga.edu, macedonia@husc.harvard.edu,
              nea@athena.mit.edu

                     * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
                      * DEPRIVATION  OF LIBERTY *
                      * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Relevant Article of the European Convention on Human Rights:
               " No one shall be deprived of his liberty.." <Article 5>

Charge laid against Turkey: The Turkish armed forces detained thousands
                 of persons arbitrarily and without lawful authority.On
                 entering any inhabited area  they  immediately rounded
                 up all Greek Cypriot inhabitants  (many women & child-
                 ren were hiding in their homes) .  On capture men were
                 separated and detained apart from old people,women and
                 children, who were either put in "concentration camps"
                 or expelled.  On the hundreds kept in such camps small
                 babies to old people of 90 were crowded together under
                 atrocious conditions  without  sanitary  facilities at
                 the height of summertime, when temperatures reach over
                 40 o C. The worst such "concentration camps" were Voni,
                 Marathovouno, Vitsada and Gypsou. In addition, Turkish
                 authorities held some 3,000 inhabitants of the Kyrenia
                 district in the Kyrenia Dome Hotel & in Bellapais vil-
                 lage.
                 Many  male  Greek Cypriots  were  temporarily  sent as
                 "prisoners of war"  to places like Saray Prison & Pav-
                 lides Garage in the Turkish part of Nicosia, later be-
                 ing transported to Turkey  and  detained in prisons in
                 Adana, Amasia and Atiama. It is notable that the great
                 majority of those shipped to Turkey  were civilians of
                 all ages between 17 and 70.
                 [ Article 49.1  of the Geneva Convention, 1949, Fourth
                                 Schedule, provides that:
                  "individual or mass forcible transfers,as well as de-
                  portations of protected persons from  occupied terri-
                  tory of the  Occupying Power  or to that of any other
                  country, occupied or not  ARE PROHIBITED,  regardless
                  of their motive."]< The transfer of civilians to Tur-
                                    < key show the  contempt  exhibited
                                    < by the Turkish Army for the prin-
                                    < ciples of international law.

                 Turkey has  never provided complete lists of detainees
                 and the fate of about 3,000 Greek Cypriots was unknown
                 at the time of the first applications to the Commissi-
                 on. Because evidence showed  numbers  of these MISSING
                 persons had been in  custody  in Turkey the Commission
                 was asked to investigate whether they were  STILL IMP-
                 RISONED there.

Turkish defense: No answer was given to these charges. Turkey boycotted
                 the Commission's proceedings  once  her jurisdictional
                 objection was rejected.

Commission's Verdict:
                  " Detention centers
                  1. The Commission,by thirteen votes against one, con-
                     cludes that, by the  CONFINEMENT  of more than two
                     thousand Greek Cypriots to detention centres esta-
                     blished in schools and churches at Voni,Gypsou and
                     Morphou,Turkey has violated Art.5(1) of the Conve-
                     ntion.
                  2. The Commission by thirteen votes against one, fur-
                     ther concludes that, by the  CONFINEMENT  of Greek
                     Cypriots to  private houses in Gypsou and Morphou,
                     where they kept  under similar circumstances as in
                     the detention centres, Turkey has equally violated
                     Art.5(1).
                  3. The Commission,  by ten votes against two with two
                     abstentions, finally concludes that, by the CONFI-
                     NEMENT of Greek Cypriots to the Kyrenia Dome Hotel
                     after 14 August 1974,  Turkey has  again  violated
                     Art.5(1).

                  Prisoners and detainees
                  1. The Commission,by thirteen votes against one, con-
                     cludes that the DETENTION of Greek Cypriot milita-
                     ry personnel IN Turkey was  not in conformity with
                     Art.5(1) of the Convention.
                  2. The Commission,by thirteen votes against one, con-
                     cluded that the DETENTION of Greek Cypriot civili-
                     ans IN Turkey was equally  not  in conformity with
                     Art.5.(1)" (Report, p.164).

                  Evidence on missing persons
                  The evidence before the Commission  does not  allow a
                  definite finding with regard to the fate of Greek Cy-
                  priots declared to be missing.  This is partly due to
                  the fact that the Commission's Delegation was REFUSED
                  ACCESS to the northern/occupied/part of Cyprus and to
                  places in Turkey where  Greek Cypriot  prisoners were
                  or had been detained.
                  In the present Report the Commission is only concern-
                  ed with the fate of persons declared to be missing as
                  from the  beginning  of the military action of Turkey
                  on 20 July 1974.  It is NOT concerned with any person
                  missing  due to the coup d'etat which on 15 July 1974
                  preceded the above action...
                  It appears, however, from the evidence that:
                  --> it is widely accepted that "a considerable number
                      of Cypriots"  are STILL  " MISSING as a result of
                      armed conflict in Cyprus" i.e. between Turkey and
                      Cyprus;
                  --> a number of persons  declared  to be missing have
                      been IDENTIFIED as Greek Cypriots taken  prisoner
                      by the Turkish army.
                  The Commission considers that there is a  presumption
                  of Turkish  responsibility  for the  fate  of persons
                  shown to have been in Turkish custody. However,on the
                  basis  of the material before it,  the Commission has
                  been unable to ascertain whether, and under what cir-
                  cumstances,  Greek Cypriot  prisoners  declared to be
                  missing have been  deprived  of their life"
                                      <Report, paras.347-349, and 351>.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU