Political murders haunt Turkey's Kurds<\/p>\n
By Aliza Marcus<\/p>\n
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuter): Necati Aydin, a former union
\nchief and Kurdish activist, was last seen alive in the state
\nsecurity court in Diyarbakir, in southeast Turkey.<\/p>\n
He had been detained three weeks earlier on suspicion of
\naiding separatist Kurdish rebels. Five days after the April 4
\nhearing, Aydin's corpse was found on a road at the city's edge.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of people, many of them Kurdish nationalists, have
\nbeen murdered or have "disappeared" in the southeast in the last
\nthree years of intensifying conflict between the Turkish state
\nand the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).<\/p>\n
The killings are so commonplace -- the interior ministry
\ncounted 103 in the first five months of the year -- that they
\nreceive only cursory coverage in the Turkish press. The ministry
\nsaid suspects had been detained for 23 of the murders.<\/p>\n
Human rights groups have urged Ankara to investigate.
\n"The situation gets graver by the hour...death-squad-style
\nkillings are reported almost daily; and there has been an
\nalarming increase in disappearances," said the London-based
\nAmnesty International in a statement issued in June.<\/p>\n
This year, the U.S. State Department devoted a whole section
\nto the issue in its annual report on human rights in Turkey.<\/p>\n
"Political murders and extrajudicial killings in 1993,
\nattributed to both government authorities and terrorist groups,
\ncontinued to occur at the relatively high 1992 rates," it said.
\nAnne Burley, Amnesty's director for the European region, said it
\nappeared that the security forces were involved in some of the
\nmurders. Turkish officials strongly deny this.<\/p>\n
"In some cases the person was detained immediately before the
\nkilling and in other cases the person may have been threatened by
\nthe security forces," Burley told Reuters.<\/p>\n
The chilling series began in July 1991 with Vedat Aydin,
\nDiyarbakir branch chairman of the Kurdish-basd People's Labor
\nParty (HEP), who was taken from his home by men who said they
\nwere police. His tortured body was found a few days later.<\/p>\n
Victims since then have included some of Turkey's most
\nprominent Kurdish activists. Musa Anter, a writer, was shot in
\nDiyarbakir in September 1992. Member of parliament Mehmet Sincar
\nwas gunned down in broad daylight in Batman a year later.<\/p>\n
At least 70 members of HEP and its successor, the Democracy
\nParty (DEP) -- both now banned by the constitutional court --
\nhave been murdered, as have several Kurdish journalists.<\/p>\n
The Turkish authorities, denying any involvement by the
\nsecurity forces, say the murders are the work of the PKK or the
\nresult of a feud between the PKK and a shadowy Hizbollah group --
\nwhich have in the past agreed to halt the mutual killings.<\/p>\n
"We know most are committed by the PKK, perhaps because the
\nperson did not want to join the group, or to settle an old score.<\/p>\n
The problem is we have trouble catching them," said Bekir
\nSelcuk, prosecutor at the Diyarbakir state security court.<\/p>\n
Many Kurds in the region suspect that the security forces have
\nused Hizbollah to pursue an undercover war against PKK militants
\nand anyone else harboring nationalist opinions.<\/p>\n
Last month, Turkish authorities cracked down on Hizbollah,
\ncharging 35 of its militants with treason for seeking to set up
\nan Islamic Kurdish state. They were accused of involvement in 39
\nattacks in which 25 people were killed and 35 wounded in Batman
\nand Diyarbakir. Fifteen of them face a possible death penalty.<\/p>\n
Kurdish sources say Hizbollah itself split in 1992, setting
\noff killings between one faction which advocates an Islamic
\nKurdish state and another seeking a broader Islamic revolution.<\/p>\n
Many of the murders may never be solved, but the list is still
\nlengthening, injecting new fear into a rugged region
\ntraditionally prone to blood feuds between Kurdish clans.<\/p>",
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