Country of origin information report Turkey March 2007

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8.18 Furthermore the TESEV 2006 report noted that:

“Despite all the evidence about criminal incidents involving the village guards, there is no indication that the government is planning to disarm the village guards and abolish the village guard system. Overall, the interior ministry’s position is that the village guard system is necessary to guarantee the security of returning IDPs. This is in contrast to the position of many civil society organisations which identify the village guards as a security concern for IDPs and returnees because of the numerous human rights abuses committed by provisional village guards in the past.” [98a]
8.19 As noted in the Human Rights Watch document ‘Turkey: Letter to Minister Aksu calling for the abolition of the village guards” published on 8 June, 2006:
“The Turkish government must take immediate steps to abolish the system of village guards, which has given rise to some of the most serious human rights violations in southeast Turkey, and continues to present an obstacle to the return of displaced villagers in that area. In the past three-and-a-half years village guards have killed at least thirteen unarmed villagers, and attacked many others. Continuing violations are severely hindering resolution of the problem of widespread internal displacement in the southeast: the threatening presence of village guards is deterring displaced people from returning to their former homes; village guards occupy displaced persons’ houses or land; and displaced villagers fear that on return they will again be put under pressure to join the village guards. There is no legal requirement to join the village guard corps, but security forces often make village guard service an informal requirement for return.” [9d]
8.20 On 4 August 2006, BBC News published an article stating that the Village Guard was set up originally as a temporary militia group 22 years ago. They are still operating with more than 58,000 members. “It is a system which has long been criticised by human rights organisations for exacerbating mistrust and ethnic divisions in an already troubled region.” [66d]
Torture
8.21 According to the Turkish Constitution, the use of torture is prohibited, everyone has the right to life and the right to protect and develop his material and spiritual entity. Article 17 states that “no-one shall be subjected to torture or ill-treatment; no-one shall be subjected to penalty or treatment incompatible with human dignity”. [15]
8.22 The US State Department Report (USSD) 2005, published on 8 March 2006, noted that:
“The law prohibits such practices; however, members of the security forces continued to torture, beat, and otherwise abuse persons regularly. Incidents of torture and abuse declined during the year but remained widespread. Courts rarely convicted security officials accused of torture and tended to issue light sentences when they did convict. According to the HRF, there were 657 credible cases of torture or abuse reported at its 5 national treatment centers through November. Of these, 180 cases involved torture or abuse inflicted during the year; the rest involved incidents that occurred previously. A number of human rights observers claimed that only a small percentage of detainees reported torture and abuse because they feared retaliation or believed that complaining was futile.” [5b]
8.23 The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) (Events of 2005), published on 8 June 2006 noted that:
“Since 2003, the government has officially promoted a policy of ‘zero tolerance’ against torture and ill-treatment. The measures against torture and ill-treatment included eliminating obstacles to the prosecution of officers charged with such offences and to measures to reduce or suspend penalties decided for such officers. New safeguards were put in place to ensure the right of detainees to access medical and legal assistance. The Regulation on Apprehension, Detention and Statement Taking, amended in January 2004, improved the protection of the rights of detainees. European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) commented in a report published in 2005 that the legislative framework in Turkey was capable of effectively preventing torture, but there was a need to enforce the rules in practice. Despite the legislative improvements introduced in the past two years, Turkey’s laws and practices in 2005 still fell short of international standards for the protection of human rights.” [10a] (p434)