If you use this document, you are encouraged to make a donation to Amnesty International to support future research. The minibus, with the bodies of the passengers still inside, had been set on fire. The unburned body of the driver lay at a short distance from the vehicle. All 11 victims were Kurdish men from local villages. The day after the massacre the Turkish military flew a group of journalists from Ankara to the isolated scene to photograph the charred bodies and burned-out vehicle.
News reports that evening generated outrage and revulsion within Turkey.
Over the following days, however, the official account was challenged when word came from some relatives of the dead that local security forces had killed the men. The PKK had already denied responsibility for the massacre. It seemed that full information about the murders might never emerge from this isolated region which is under a state of emergency, with access strictly controlled by the military. They managed to reach the villages and set to work interviewing witnesses and visiting the site of the massacre. Villagers and relatives interviewed by the delegation blamed the military for the killings.