From: draskovi@usc.edu (Zoran Draskovic)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.europe
Subject: Turkey
Date: 11 Nov 92 15:00:52 GMT
Article-I.D.: sal-sun1.1dsvf4INN4fq
Distribution: world
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: sal-sun106.usc.edu


	LONDON (UPI) -- Despite election pledges to take action against human
rights violations, Turkey's new government has failed to prevent
widespread torture and killings, often by security forces, Amnesty
International said Wednesday.
	``There has been too much talk and too little action on the part of
the Turkish authorities,'' the London-based international human rights
group said.
	``The new government made serious promises on the issue of human
rights, and in particular torture, but like previous governments, it has
done nothing to stop the practice.''
	Turkish Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel spoke out against abuses of
official power in an October 1991 election pledge, and said in his
administration ``the walls of all police stations will be made of glass.
''
	But in the nine months between the formation of the new government
and the writing of the report, there were at least eight deaths in
custody believed to have been a result of torture, Amnesty said.
	Successive governments have sought to deflect international criticism
of Turkey by speaking out against human rights abuses, but they have
done nothing to stop the abuses, the group said in a report released
Wednesday, ``Turkey: Walls of Glass.''
	``There has been no discernable decline in the stream of allegations
of torture reaching Amnesty International since the formation of the new
government,'' the group said.
	The independent Turkish Human Rights Foundation received 179 reports
of torture of men, women and children in the first six months of 1992
alone.
	Few of the victims who tried to press charges against their torturers
succeeded, as many of the torture techniques left few visible injuries,
or left injuries that disappeared during a long period of police
custody.
	Many torture victims or their relatives who attempted to take legal
action were subjected to threats from officials, the group said.
	Political killings, many involving security forces, were common.
	``In southeast Turkey there were, during the summer and autumn of
1991, more than 50 alleged extrajudicial executions,'' Amnesty said.
Many victims were singled out because they were believed to be in
contact with the opposition Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), or involved in
legal political opposition to the government.
	``In these killings, the victims, mostly villagers, were taken from
their homes, often in rural areas and shot by groups of armed men, or
possibly the same group, acting as a death squad,'' Amnesty said.
	In some cases, security forces randomly fired on residential areas as
``retaliation'' for attacks by the PKK, the group said.
	Amnesty condemned the killings and sharply criticized the Turkish
government for its apparent indifference to human rights abuses, and
called on government and opposition groups to abide by international
humanitarian standards.
	``It is time for the Turkish government to face up to its
responsibilities under international law and bring perpetrators of human
rights violations to justice,'' Amnesty said. ``Too many people have
suffered already.''
Newsgroups: soc.culture.europe