Tahir Elci, Turquie

I would like to open by expressing my respect for all of you here,

I condemn the terrorist attack against Dr. Sergio de Mello and the other innocent people, and commemorate them with respect.

We are living in a period of both heart lifting and saddening events. On one hand, historical and exciting developments – like the initiation of the International Criminal Court - are taking place; but on the other hand crimes against humanity continue to be committed in the four corners of the world. Shameful crimes like torture, “disappearances” of individuals in police custody and extrajudicial killings are still on the daily agenda of humanity. I have joined you, having come from the southeast of Turkey, an area where such crimes have occurred intensively. Now that Turkey is a candidate to join the European Union, human rights violations - and especially the question of impunity - are on the public agenda in recent days. In order that the subject be understood, I would like to give some brief information about Turkey and the southeast region.

Up until very recently, the southeast of Turkey, which is where the Kurdish population live, had effectively been under a State of Emergency for more than twenty years. The region, governed by a regional governor who had extraordinary powers, was under a State of Emergency until November 2002. It is stated that more than 30,000 people died in the conflict between armed Kurdish forces and the state forces. Most of the human rights violations experienced occurred in relation to the Kurdish question and the state of emergency.

According to the statistics of the Turkish Human Rights Foundation (Turkiye Insan Haklari Vakfi - TIHV) - one of the most well-respected human rights organisations in the country – between 1990 and 2002 alone, 933 people, most of them in the southeast, died as a result of extrajudicial executions. In the whole of the country, 1,774 people were killed by persons unknown. Of these murders, 1650 occurred in the southeast. In the same period, 176 people “disappeared” in police custody; more than 3,000 settlements were evacuated and 3,000,000 people were forced to migrate. Unfortunately it is not possible to determine the number of the persons who have been tortured. However, according to the data of TIHV, 988 persons reported that they were tortured in 2002 alone. On the other hand, the official response of the Minister of the Interior to a question in parliament, discloses the extent of impunity in Turkey. Between 1995 and 1999, 3,428 criminal proceedings were brought against state officials on charges of torture and mistreatment – however, only 94 of these were sentenced. According to the same information, the percentage of criminal proceedings related to torture claims which result in sentences is around 2-3%. As can be seen, torture is widespread and practised systematically in Turkey. Those responsible are tolerated officially.

The pressure on human rights activists and the question of impunity are related to each other. Without effective legal assistance, the victims of human rights violations cannot have access to justice. In the last ten years, more than 100 human rights activists and lawyers from the Diyarbakir Bar Association alone have been subjected to criminal proceedings. The “25 lawyers” case, the hundreds of cases brought against the head of the Diyarbakir branch of the Human Rights Association, the police raid on the Diyarbakir Branch of TIHV and other cases brought against the representatives of that organization are just a few examples of these. The investigations and cases still continue.

Although Turkey is party to all the major human rights conventions in the framework of the UN and the Council of Europe, it still does not fulfil its obligations under these conventions. The country which can claim the highest number of applications to the ECHR against it is still Turkey. The minutes of the fact-finding hearings conducted by the ECHR, discloses the extent of the crimes against humanity committed in the southeast. Turkey has not yet signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Human rights organisations are campaigning and lobbying for the accession to the Statute. Despite various reforms adopted in order to fulfil the European Union criteria in the last two years, in practise no serious progress has been recorded. In our experience, we can say that the reasons for impunity in Turkey are, firstly; ignorance of human rights and insensitivity on the part of society to human rights violations. Secondly, the authorities' protective attitude towards those responsible for human rights violations; and, thirdly, the ineffectiveness of the judicial machinery and tolerance shown towards perpetrators. Thanks to the determined attitude of human rights defenders, I can say with happiness that official tolerance towards human rights violations - most of all torture - is showing signs of decline.

I offer my respects to you again and greet you all with a wish for a world where no crimes against humanity are perpetrated and where those responsible do not go unpunished.

Tahir ELÇİ / Lawyer Diyarbakir,Southeast Turkey