Throughout the rest of the country the human rights situation is deteriorating. Amnesty has also reported outrages by the PKK and other Kurdish groups. Last month it noted that in September and October 1994 the PKK abducted and killed 19 teachers, most of them working in villages in the Kurdish southeast. Most of the victims are Kurdish villagers who participated in the system of government-armed village guards, and their extended families, including women and children. When they fall into the hands of Kurdish insurgents, torture in a matter of course.
Execution often follows, unless prisoners can be used for propaganda purposes.
The Turkish Human Rights Foundation reported that in 1994 alone 202 journalists, writers and publishers were arrested for reports on the war, and that dozens of newspapers were closed or fined so heavily that they had to cease publication.