The violations of right to life have continuity!

16 April 2010

 Recent killing incidents directly or indirectly perpetuated by the law enforcement forces pulled the attention on the right to life violations which are the unchanging basic problems and shame of Turkey.

We as human Rights Foundation of Turkey, would like to mention this reality that we have been uttered persistently in recent years: Everybody living in this country is the target of law enforcement officers regardless of profession, age and sex.

Right to life violations in Turkey vary from killings on the grounds that he/she did not obey the “stop warning” to “committing suicides” or suspicious deaths in detention places and prisons.

As it can be seen from the table below, right to life violations is not a problem that we met only in 2010. Killings related with the excessive use of force by law enforcement officers or in detention palaces has been going.

“Statistical Data on the Violations of the Right to Life 1990–2009” gathered by the documentation centre of The HRFT also shows that there is an accelerating trend in recent years.

Law enforcement officers that use their enlarged authority to use firearms without hesitating especially in the recent period plays an essential role in the acceleration. The last example of it was experienced in Kuşadası District on 13 April 2010: a civil police officer shot death Umut Tamaç (27) that he had pacified by making him lay down. Another similar example: According to the authorities Alaattin Karadağ was killed with the counter fire of the law enforcement officers but witnesses claimed that he was killed after he had been apprehended unarmed in Avcılar District of İstanbul Province on 10 November 2009.

Problems in detention places went on without decreasing in this period. Killings due to torture and ill-treatment were occurred in prisons as we had been witnessed in Engin Çeber case which was reported largely in national press because of the apologise of the Minister of Justice for the first time due to torture in prison. Most recent example of this was experienced in Kırıklar (İzmir) F type Closed Prison No. 2. The administration of the prison claimed on 3 April 2010 that the prisoner Mehmet Kılınç attempted suicide and he died in Yeşilyurt State Hospital on 9 April 2010. But Lawyer Nezahat Paşa Bayraktar, the chairperson of the Human Rights Association’s Izmir Branch, stated that there were beating marks on Mehmet Kılınç’s back and legs and these marks have been weakened the “suicide” claims.

Authorities claimed that Resul İçlin (52) who was detained in identity search in İdil District of Şırnak Province on 21 October 2009 died after he fell down. But in Resul İçlin’s autopsy it was found out that there were bruises and pound marks in his body.

Although the legal opportunities that were given to the law enforcement officers leads to heavy human rights violations this situation cannot be explained only with the legal amendments. Although extensive right to life violations in 1990s were relatively decreased with the EU process, we still face with the above mentioned picture because there was not a fundamental change in the “security based administration” perspective.

The fact of “impunity” is the most fundamental factor of the ongoing violence. As in the case of Baran Tursun, the police officer who killed Baran Tursun in Izmir Province was sentenced to two years’ and two months’ of imprisonment and the ten police officers who had been tried on charges of destroying the evidences in the crime scene were acquitted.

And in Nigerian Festus Okey’s “suspicious” death in detention on 20 August 2007 case Beyoğlu Heavy Penal Court No. 4 did not progressed in passing 32 months because the court could not confirm the identity of Festus Okey.

In short it is embarrassing to experience excessive violence incidents in detention centres and in prisons in a country which has huge objectives such as EU membership. It is the responsibility of society and foremost the government to get rid of this embarrass. All measurements for the transformation of the attitudes and perspectives with the amendments of law should be taken. It is a very well known fact that protection and improvement of the human rights and freedoms don’t threaten the “security” of the country and society contrary they strengthen it.

 Prof. Dr. Şebnem KORUR FİNCANCI

The President of HRFT