Amnesty International has received no reply to its letter to the Prime Minister of 30 September 1996 concerning Ahmet Bozkurt, Halit Ertus, S leyman Tekin, Orhan Kaya and Selahattin Kaya, five shepherds who disappeared following a clash between security forces and armed members of the PKK near the village of Otluca near Hakkari. Amnesty International has also energetically campaigned for an end to killings of prisoners and civilians by the PKK, focusing in its campaign report No Security without Human Rights on the PKKs abominable record of attacking teachers. The PKK has failed to respond in any way to three years of repeated appeals from Amnesty International. An important factor in the pattern of disappearance in Turkey has been the abuse by police and gendarmerie of detention procedures which are already wretchedly inadequate and far short of international standards. Turkish citizens are very commonly snatched from their homes or public places by plainclothes police or gendarmes or village guards without insignia.
Arrest warrants are more or less unknown.
Families are kept in ignorance and records, if they are kept at all, are not normally accessible to relatives or lawyers. The detainees are not permitted access to families, lawyers or independent medical advice. The system is an invitation to torture and disappearance. On 17 October, Foreign Minister Tansu iller made a public undertaking that the government would reduce the period of police detention to meet international standards. Amnesty Internationals view is that such a change, if enacted, could be a real turning point in human rights.