For two years the Turkish Justice Ministry has, in practice, all but ignored concerns expressed by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, Human Rights Watch and others about isolating prisoners in its new F-type prisons. The Turkish government's failure to address these concerns has fueled opposition to the new prisons and contributed to the current deadly and potentially destabilizing crisis. As of 11 May, 2001 eighteen prisoners and four relatives of prisoners have died in the course of a hunger strike in protest against the violent transfers to F-type prisons and the regime of isolation imposed there. A further seventeen prisoners have suffered permanent and severe brain damage. In addition, thirty prisoners and two Turkish gendarmes were killed in the course of the violent operation to transfer prisoners to the new facilities in December 2000.
The Justice Ministry has publicly conceded that small-group isolation is damaging to prisoners. Ministry officials stated that they wanted to provide prisoners with time out of their cells to participate in organized activities, but that they were prevented from doing so by the provisions of Article 16 of the Anti-Terror Law. Nonetheless, the government failed to push through amendments to the law before transferring prisoners to the new prisons in December 2000. Moreover, after the transfers, it took the Turkish government a full four months to enact the necessary changes. On 1 May, the amended law was passed by parliament. Yet by 11 May, to Human Rights Watch's knowledge, not a single prisoner had been brought out of his unit. Meanwhile we have received new reports that prisoners have been ill-treated in the privacy of their units for failing to present themselves for rollcall, or for shouting political slogans.
Against this backdrop, it is essential for Council of Europe representatives to impress upon their Turkish counterparts the importance of immediately taking the steps recommended by the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) following its April visit to Turkey. A copy of the CPT statement is attached for your reference. Drawing from the CPT's observations and recommendations, as well as those put forward by Parliamentary Assembly Lord Russell-Johnston in a recent editorial, we have identified the following steps, which we hope you will urge the Turkish authorities to take to resolve the crisis, immediately, before the Standing Committee convenes on 21 May:
- Immediately arrange for daily out-of-cell communal activities for all prisoners in F-type prisons.
- Immediately make arrangements for regular independent monitoring of prison conditions by civil society groups such as the bar and medical associations or a specially constituted board of prison visitors. Such monitoring could publicly verify that prisoners in F-type prisons are able to leave their cells for communal activities, and that they are being granted open visits and telephone calls on a regular basis.
- Ensure that the elements of prison reform proposals and arrangements for their implementation are explained in a public, objective and thorough way to all those involved in the hunger strikes.
In addition, we believe it would be valuable for the Secretary General to offer the Turkish government his good offices to facilitate implementation of the CPT's recommendations and to bring about a resolution of the crisis in the upcoming week before the Standing Committee meeting convenes in Istanbul.
Thank you very much for your attention to these urgent concerns.
Sincerely,
Holly Cartner
Executive Director
Europe and Central Asia Division
Lotte Leicht
Director
Brussels Office
