Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the Turkish government to ‘‘end impunity for state killings and disappearances” and address time limits and other obstacles to justice for past abuses, in a report released yesterday in İstanbul.
The 67-page report, “Time for Justice: Ending Impunity for Killings and Disappearances in 1990s Turkey,” looks at the lessons on obstacles to accountability from the ongoing trial of retired Col. Cemal Temizöz and six others for the murder and disappearance of 20 men and boys between 1993 and 1995.
Referring to cases including ‘‘those responsible for the serious human rights violations committed after the September 1980 military coup and against the Kurdish civilian population in the 1990s,” in a press release HRW calls on the Turkish government to ‘‘take action to address statutory time limits, witness intimidation, and other obstacles to the prosecution of members of security forces and public officials for killings, disappearances, and torture.”
HRW directs attention to a 20-year limitation on murder investigations contained in Turkey’s previous penal code and argues that because of it, ‘‘hundreds of deaths in custody and summary executions by the security forces risk being deemed time-barred for prosecution.”
“Old laws that curtail investigations into serious human rights abuses in Turkey have allowed the security forces and public officials to get away with murder and torture,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, senior Turkey researcher at HRW in the press release. “It is vital that Turkish authorities act now to ensure there are no time bars on victims getting justice.”
The report, which includes interviews with 55 individuals in Şırnak whose relatives were murdered or disappeared by suspected state perpetrators in the early 1990s, argues that ‘‘thousands more state-perpetrated killings of Kurds from the early 1990s could be similarly excluded from prosecution and trial in the coming three years,” according to the HRW press release, while noting that the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) ‘‘also committed grave human rights abuses in the course of the conflict.”
According to the report, the interviewees repeatedly told HRW that they wanted to see the perpetrators brought to trial for the murders and disappearances of their loved ones. Harun Padır was 17 years old in 1994 when security forces detained him with his father İzzet Padır and uncle Abdullah Özdemir, who were never seen again. HRW states in its press release that he expressed a sentiment shared by all the relatives of the victims HRW interviewed for the report: “For us, compensation means nothing. We just want justice.”
HRW researchers say that they ‘‘spoke to dozens of relatives of victims who confirmed either that they had for many years been too afraid to pursue complaints or that, if they did, there was a complete absence of any effective investigation.” HRW argues that ‘‘their words reinforce the European Court of Human Rights’ many judgments against Turkey recording violations of the right to life through a pattern of failure to carry out effective investigations.” However, the press release also notes that the ‘‘Ergenekon case has provided a possible opening for further efforts to uncover the state’s involvement in the mass violations of the early 1990s.”
According to HRW, the Temizöz case — since it is the first trial of a senior member of the gendarmerie for serious human rights violations — has provided important lessons about the possible obstacles to justice likely to arise in thousands more cases of abuse by members of the security forces and state officials in provinces throughout the Southeast of Turkey and also in major cities.
HRW is calling on the Turkish government, courts and prosecutors to develop a model of victim-centered justice in Turkey. Action is also needed to shorten proceedings, which stretch out over months and years making intimidation more likely.
“The climate of fear among victims’ relatives and witnesses persists to this day,” said Sinclair-Webb in the press release. “To give them the confidence to come forward, prosecutors and courts need to adopt more effective witness protection and a victim-centered approach to justice.”
The report recommends the Turkish Parliament establish an independent truth commission to examine past abuses. It also builds on earlier recommendations by the UN, the Council of Europe and other international bodies calling on the government to pursue a comprehensive plan to dismantle the village guard system operating in the provinces of southeast Turkey. The report finds the village guard system, which is deeply embedded in the social and political fabric of local communities, to be a major obstacle to justice in the region.
