Slight Improvement Seen in Turkish Torture Record

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Slight Improvement Seen in Turkish Torture Record

STRASBOURG (Reuters)--The Council of Europe announced on Thursday Decmeber 7 that some forms of torture were still common in Turkey's notorious prison system, but added that the worst abuses were on the decline in at least one jail.

 

In two separate reports, the Council's Committee for the Prevention of Torture noticed an improvement in the treatment of prisoners in an anti-terrorist police holding center in Istanbul over the past two years.

 

"This is clearly a step in the right direction," the report stated, but stressed that the situation was still far from perfect.

 

"The recourse to methods like sleep deprivation for several days, prolonged standing and threats aimed at detainees and their families is still widespread," it said, reporting on visits to the center in July.

 

When the Council's committee visited the same jail in early 1999 it reported that some prisoners had complained of appalling treatment, adding that a few men "were visibly terrified."

 

"Allegations concerned, in particular, prolonged standing, blows to the body, twisting of genitals and hanging by the arms," it said, adding that medical experts had confirmed some of the accusations. Several allegations concerned electric shock treatment.

 

The 41-nation Council of Europe, which monitors human rights and democracy in the region, has repeatedly denounced Turkey's treatment of prisoners in recent years.

 

Although the Council is independent of the European Union, the EU has openly endorsed its work and has made it clear to Turkey that it needs to reassess its commitment to human rights if it wished to join the 15-country bloc.

 

Earlier this week Amnesty International savaged Turkey in a report, saying that torture was "widespread" in the country's prisons, with both political prisoners and ordinary criminal suspects subject to brutality.

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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has said his government would seek

to override a presidential veto and send an amnesty bill designed to reduce the prison

population back to parliament for approval, newspapers said Sunday.

 

President Ahmet Necdet Sezer refused to approve the bill on Friday saying it was unfair and

could harm trust in justice and laws.

 

The bill, which reduces sentences by 10 years, would allow for the release of nearly half of the

nation's 72,000 inmates. It is aimed at reforming the country's troubled prison system.

 

Ecevit said Saturday he would send the bill back to parliament this week, Hurriyet newspaper

said. If parliament re-approves the bill without making any changes, then Sezer cannot veto the

bill for a second time. He can however, ask the Constitutional Court to cancel the bill.

 

Meanwhile, hunger strikes in the country's prisons entered 59th day on Sunday, with doctors

warning of imminent deaths.

 

Some 250 prisoners linked to militant leftist groups are protesting planned transfers from their

dormitory-style wards to one- or three-person cells. Several inmates launched the strike on Oct.

20 while others joined in the following weeks.

 

The inmates say the cells would leave them vulnerable to abuse by authorities. They are

refusing medical treatment and drinking only water.

 

Mediation efforts were halted Friday and Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk rejected the

prisoners demand to be housed in 20-person rooms as "unacceptable." The government said it

would bear no responsibility if the inmates die.

 

On Sunday, human rights activists asked Turk to immediately resume negotiations.

 

"We don't want anyone to die," Husnu Odul, president of Turkey's Human Rights Association.

 

The government wants to break up the large wards, which it cannot control and where riots and

hostage-takings are frequent. Political inmates run their wards like an indoctrination center with

military discipline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[This message has been edited by Kazza (edited December 17, 2000).]