Amnesty International said yesterday that it has received almost daily reports of widespread torture in Turkey, where it said authorities regularly force confessions out of men, women and children through beatings, sexual abuse, electric shocks and even crucifixion. It said Turkey still had an “appalling human rights record" despite public relations campaigns by its embassies around the world to improve its image and despite official Turkish ratification of European and U.N. conventions against torture. The 73-page report by the London-based organization, which ...
Table of Contents
1 / Widespread Torture in Turkey Reported, January 4, San Francisco Chronicle 2 / The Search for a Poison Antidote, January 16, Time 3 / U.S. Says Iraq Has Biological Weapons Plant, January 18, San Francisco Chronicle 4 / U.S. Finds Iraq Has Germ War Plant, January 18, Los Angeles Times 5 / Iraq's Abuse of Human Rights, February 2, The times 6 / Kurdistan Culture Preserved, February 8, The Christian Science Monitor 8 / Mideast Getting Missile Help, U.S. Concludes, February 8, San Jose Mercury News 9 / U.S. Challenge in Mideast, February 8, San Francisco Chronicle
12 / Iraqi Leader Reportedly Quashes Coup Attempt, February 8, San Jose Mercury News 13 / Iraq: An Accusation of Torture, Newsweek 14 / U.S. Export Controls Lax on Poison-Gas Materials, March 27, San Francisco Chronicle 15 / March/April Iraq's War on Its Children Amnesty Action 17 / Iran, Turkey Recall Envoys in Dispute, April 4, San Francisco Chronicle 18 / Kurds Seek a Safe Home in a Free Country, April 15, The New York Times 19 / U.S. Firms' Sales to Iraq Told, May 3, San Francisco Chronicle 20 / Saddam's secret Weapons, June, The Middle East
21 / A Reporter at Large: Crossing the Straits, June 5, The New Yorker Magazine 38 / Iraqis Silence Iranian Rebels as Gesture to Please Teheran, June 7, The New York Times 38 / Iraqi Relocations, June 11, San Jose Mercury News 39 / Kurdish Solutions, June 16, The Times 40 / Wretched Kurds, June 24, The Economist
41 / The State That Never Was, June 24, The Economist 43 / Refugees Hit by U.K. Scare Tactics, June 25, Observer 45 / Britain Slams Door on 'Economic Migrants', June 26, The Independent 47 / Volunteers' Burden Creates bitterness and Exhaustion, June 26, The Independent 47 / Hope Ebbs Away in the 'Prison' of Turkish camps, June 26, The Independent 48 / 'Poison Gas' Deal upsets Bush, June 28, The Daily Telegraph 49 / The Plight of a Kurdish Asylum Seeker in Britain, June 29, The Independent 50 / Children of The Middle East- The Innocent Victims of Political Turmoil, June, The Middle East
56 / Hunger Strikes and Tunnels Plague Turkish Jails, July 1, The Guardian 57 / Iraq Uproots Kurds, Razes 700 Villages on Northern Border, July 12, San Francisco Chronicle 58 / Uprooted Kurds, July 13, San Francisco Chronicle 59 / Cultural Genocide: Kurds Seek Help for Their Battered Homeland, July 26, San Mateo Weekly
62 / Iraqi Dictator's Latest Deeds, July 30, San Francisco Examiner 63 / Gulf Cease-Fire Leaves Rebel Groups of Region in Quandary, August 15, The New York Times 64 / Scientists Say Kurds Were Poisoned, August 15, San Francisco Chronicle 65 / A Greater Danger Rising, August 18, San Francisco Chronicle 66 / Forgotten People- The World and The Kurds, August 21, The Nation 67 / Kurds Plan Parliament, August 24, San Francisco Chronicle 68 / The Selling of Iraq's President Hussein, September 20, San Francisco Chronicle
70 / Urgency on Chemical Weapons, September 28, San Francisco Examiner 71 / Paris Talks Seek Attention for Plight of Kurds, October 15, The New York Times 72 / Conference Airs Plight of Kurds, October 16, Chicago Tribune 72 / Kurds Jeer Iraqi at Rights Conference, October 16, San Francisco Chronicle 73 / Torch of Freedom?, October 20, New Statesman & Society 76 / Iraq's Criminal Credit Line, October 26, The New York Times 77 / Home News, October 28, The Guardian 78 / For Turkey and Kurds, Fragile Reconciliation, November 3, The New York Times
81 / Turks Dismayed by Onset of Kurdish Lobby in U.S., November 10, Asbarez-English Edition 82 / Free the Kurds, November 23, The New York Times 83 / Kurds of Armenia Reclaim Their Former Autonomous Region Azerbaijan, December 30, Asbarez-English Edition 84 / Middle Eastern Cultural Genocide: The Kurds, Nov/December, Date Line 85 / The Divided and Endangered People, Number 1, Humanitas
KURDISTAN ON FIRE
"Kurdistan on Fire" is part of the history of the tragic events that have taken place in the greater occupied Kurdistan with special emphasis on Iraqi-occupied Kurdistan from 1986-1990 as reported in the western, mainly American, media.
What you see and read here is only the tip of the iceberg. The scope of the Kurdish tragedy and the true extent of the destruction of Iraqi-occupied Kurdistan is impossible to know until after the fall of the present regime when, hopefully, a full inquiry can be made into the untold crimes of the regime of Saddam Hussein against the defenseless Kurdish population. Iran, Turkey, and Syria have not been any more humane than Iraq to their own Kurdish population. The only reason that Iraqi-occupied Kurdistan is in the spotlight is that the Kurds there have been more active in their fight for freedom in the last few decades than their brethren in the other parts of Kurdistan. In Iran, the Shah kept the Kurds under tight control and Khomeini declared a "holy war" against them soon after the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Turkey does not recognize its twelve million Kurds as a separate nationality and considers them "mountain Turks who have forgotten their language" and miraculously learnt another. Turkey's policy of forcible assimilation is notorious. Syria's policy of Arabization of its share of the Kurdish prize is a long-standing one.
Even though the Kurds have been subjected to state terrorism and extreme violations of their basic human rights by the various states that have controlled their destiny ever since the dismemberment of Kurdistan and its annexation by force to Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria at the end of the First World War, they never imagined anything like the reign of terror under Saddam Hussein and his Baath Arab Socialist Party. For the Kurds, life under Saddam has been a hell; there is not a family or an inch of land that his savagery has not touched. The regime of Saddam has committed genocide against a people who have asked for nothing but to live in peace, dignity, and freedom in their own land.
Recently, an American television reporter remarked in disbelief about the "Intifada" in Palestine/Israel that since the beginning of the and 1 commented independence that fifty years!" suffering of made for freedom, for we are determination of all nations; truth and, thus, we would individuals and millions of others Kurdistan standing; long we independence.
Widespread Torture in Turkey Reported
United Pnsa International
London
Amnesty International said yesterday that it has received almost daily reports of widespread torture in Turkey, where it said authorities regularly force confessions out of men, women and children through beatings, sexual abuse, electric shocks and even crucifixion.
It said Turkey still had an “appalling human rights record" despite public relations campaigns by its embassies around the world to improve its image and despite official Turkish ratification of European and U.N. conventions against torture.
The 73-page report by the London-based organization, which monitors rights violations around the world, was one of the most scathing documents it has published on a single nation in rpcent years.
“Amnesty has received reports of torture from Turkey virtually daily during the past two months,” it said.
Since the Sept 12, I960 military coup, Amnesty said, an estimated 250,000 political prisoners have been detained, and most of them were tortured.
Thousands among them were imprisoned for nonviolent political or religious activities, and more than 60,00 political prisoners were jailed after unfair trials, it said. More than 700 people were sentenced to death, and at least 200 people died from torture while in custody. “The authorities appear reluctant to take even the most elementary practical steps to eradicate human rights abuses and have failed to implement the provisions of the international conventions it ratified,” the Amnesty report said.
Examples of torture of prisoners, such as the case of Ozgur Cem Ths, a boy of 13, made chilling reading. He was taken to the police headquarters in Diyarkbakir, eastern Turkey, on June 30 because his cousins were suspected of supporting Kurdish guerrillas.
I was taken to the sixth floor of the police headquarters. I was blindfolded and handcuffed. They applied Yalaka* (a Turkish form of beating the bare soles of the feet with a stick) for 25 minutes.
“My hands were untied, and I wassuspended from hooks and electric shocks were applied to my penis. I told them I didn’t know where my cousins were.”
…..
Kurdistan on Fire - II
Kurdish Reliff Aid
Compte d’auteur
Compte d’auteur Kurdistan on Fire – II Kurdish Reliff Aid
1989
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This collection of articles has been compiled by: Kurdish Reliff Aid 2439 Birch Street, Suite 7 Palo Alto, California 94306
