E/CN.4/1999/61/Add.1
page 4
the Ankara branch of IHD; in Diyarbakir, the Diyarbakir branch of HRFT, the
Association for Solidarity with Families of Prisoners (TAYD-DER), the
Diyarbakir Bar Association and the Diyarbakir Medical Chamber; in Istanbul,
the Istanbul branch of HRFT, the Istanbul branch of IHD, the Saturday Mothers
and the Istanbul Bar Association.
I.
THE PRACTICE OF TORTURE:
A.
SCOPE AND CONTEXT
General issues
8.
There was unanimity among the authorities interviewed by the Special
Rapporteur in stating that cases of torture in Turkey were not systematic and,
when isolated cases occurred, these were not supported by the Government.
Most of the authorities maintained that the incidence of torture had
decreased, especially in the last few years, thus implicitly recognizing a
higher incidence earlier. However, some of them also admitted that torture
is, on the one hand, still part of the Turkish tradition and, on the other,
sometimes an inevitable part of the campaign against terrorism. The Governor
of the Emergency Region, Mr. Aydin Arslan, stated that in the past there were
many more allegations of torture. The recent reduction of the number of
allegations was mainly due to the reduction of the rate of terrorism, the new
legislation and increased training of personnel.
9.
In contrast, the Special Rapporteur received a great deal of information
from non-governmental sources both before and during his visit alleging that
torture continued to be a widespread and systematic practice. The majority of
cases, however, are not reported to the authorities, mainly due to the fact
that legal proceedings are rarely initiated against law enforcement officers
committing torture, even more rarely result in the conviction of the
perpetrators and, in the exceptional cases in which an enforcement officer is
sentenced, the sentences tend to be lenient. Also, in some cases, the torture
victims feel so humiliated that it is very difficult for them to admit and
denounce the torture inflicted on them. The perception of what constitutes
torture is also relevant: often only the most brutal physical torture is
considered as such, both by the victim and the public prosecutor responsible
for investigating cases of torture. A selection of approximately 40 cases
submitted to the Special Rapporteur by non-governmental organizations between
12 October and 12 December 1998 is given in the annex to the present report.
It will also be summarized and transmitted to the Government in accordance
with the standard procedures of the mandate.
10.
The Human Rights Foundation of Turkey reported that 537 people in 1997
and about 350 in the first half of 1998 had applied to their treatment and
rehabilitation centres as victims of torture. These figures do not represent
the totality of torture victims, but only those who were familiar with the
work of the rehabilitation centres, or applied to an organization or
individual familiar with the Foundation. Also, the numbers of torture
allegations coming from the south and south-east of Turkey, especially from
the Emergency zones, have decreased because, according to non-governmental
sources, people are less eager to report cases and most of the independent
lawyers and physicians have emigrated to Istanbul and Ankara. Therefore,
there is little human rights monitoring taking place in this region.