A credible estimate given by a former member of parliament from the region is around 560,000. The gross violations of human rights by the Turkish authorities are not limited to the brutal repression of the Kurdish minority. Disappearances also continued. Prolonged pretrial detention and lengthy trials continue to be problems. A total of 713 applications were received in 1995.
Government officials admit that torture occurs.
Other forms of torture were sexual abuse, submersion in cold water, use of truncheons, hanging sand bags on detainees' necks, forcing detainees to stand on one foot, releasing drops of water on their heads, and withholding food. Pressure is placed on physicians not to report evidence of torture. Physicians responded to the coercion by refraining from examining detainees, performing cursory examinations and not reporting findings, or reporting physical findings but not drawing reasonable medical inferences that torture occurred. Doctors and other health-care professionals in a state of emergency region have been killed, tortured, imprisoned, internally exiled, and legally sanctioned in the course of their professional duties. Most estimates agree that 2,600 to 3,000 villages and hamlets have been depopulated.