ATIK | Confederation of Workers from Turkey in Europe | AHM-ATIK News Center
DİYARBAKIR | 18 – 08 – 2013 | The Human Rights Association (IHD) Diyarbakır Branch has released its report on human rights violations in the the East and South East regions jails for the first 6 months of 2013.
The report underlined the ill-treatment and torture practices are still very high and warned that death toll could climb due to sick inmates who are still awaiting for release.
As to the solitary confinement of Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan, the report underlined that it contradicts with the ongoing peace process, and asked for it to be removed immediately.
IHD Diyarbakır Branch Chairman Raci Bilici and executives Muhterem Süren and Emin Ermin held a press conference to highlight the main findings of the report. Bilici said that the majority of human rights abuses took place in prisons in Turkey.
“Even though we applied to officials several times concerning human rights abuses, most of our efforts yielded no results or officials didn’t show the willingness to resolve issues. Therefore, Turkey’s prisons have more and more problems”, he said
Transfers – a practice that the report said it is used as “an intervention to yield inmates” – resumed in 2013. Bilici claimed that inmates were frequently subjected to torture and isolation during transfers.
“In a short period of time, the torture policy on inmates turned systematic and aimed to become a pressure mechanism against inmates. As our report points out, we have recieved several complaints concerning torture practices in various prisons.”
Bilici went on underlining the problems related to inmates’ health problems.
“There are currently about 450 sick inmates in Turkey’s prisons. – he said – Only 9 were released due to their treatment. 4 sick inmates died because of their release denial.”
“Despite judicial reforms and human rights associations’ efforts, only 9 sick patients have been released so far in 2013. 4 sick inmates died because of their release denial.”
“Judicial reforms have serious flaws and are yet to fulfill our demands. It is widely known that Turkey’s Forensics Institute lost its impartiality towards inmates and issued reports in a political fashion.”
“For this reason, we are calling to all official one more time. We keep on hearing death tolls from prisons. This issue must be resolved immediately. This issue must be resolved not only through judicial reforms but with a realistic approach. All sick inmates must be released immediately. Otherwise, we will keep on hearing sad news from prisons.
Bilici also drew attention to the fact that 150 sick prisoners are in a critical condition.
“Women inmates in Muş prison held a hunger strike for 14 days to protest the ill-treatment and poor conditions. These protests happen throughout the prisons in the region. There must be a resolution immediately.”
Bilici also reminded that PKK leader Öcalan was frequently subjected to family and advocate visit limitations.
“This is against the spirit of Turkey’s ongoing peace process. This practice has no place in the international law. Isolation on PKK leader must end immediately.”
The report listed the 872 human rights violations in eastern and southeastern prisons:
death in prison (4), torture (94), transfer (350), health check-up abuse (73), family visit bans (7), isolation and confinement (99), violation of communication right (6), violation of mother tongue right (1), other (11). (ANF)
