"This human rights problem directly affects more people in Turkey than any other single human rights issue," said Human Rights Watch Turkey researcher Jonathan Sugden. "But the international community is unlikely to lend resources and expertise to the effort until the government produces a transparent plan that effectively protects and meets the needs of the displaced."

The 78-page report, entitled Displaced and Disregarded: Turkey's Failing Village Return Program, documents the plight of mainly Kurdish villagers forced to flee their villages in southeastern Turkey during the 15-year conflict waged between the illegal, armed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) and Turkish government forces.

Estimates of the number of displaced people range from 380,000 to 1,000,000, most of whom were forced out of their homes by Turkish security forces and paramilitary village guards determined to deprive the PKK of access to food, shelter and recruits.

Human Rights Watch interviewed dozens of displaced villagers who longed to return home and escape cramped and impoverished lives in unfamiliar urban surroundings. But although active hostilities ceased in 1999, it appears that no more than ten percent have ventured home. Human Rights Watch identified a range of factors blocking return, from inadequate government assistance to continued violence by Turkish security forces and their paramilitaries.

Many villages remain off-limits, with local or regional authorities forbidding return. In other cases, return is officially permitted, but returning villagers are greeted with harassment, detention and attacks by the gendarmerie and village guards. Some have been forced to flee a second time. Return under current circumstances is a major gamble for villagers, with serious personal and financial risks.

A displaced villager from Mardin working as a taxi-driver in Istanbul asked: "If the villagers go back now, what is the guarantee that they won't get turned out again in a year's time-and perhaps with violence? More than help in returning or permission to return, our villagers are looking for guarantees of safety."

The Turkish authorities appear intent on limiting villagers' recourse to courts to enforce their rights. In recent years, Turkey has faced a growing number of lawsuits before the European Court of Human Rights, which has ordered that the Turkish government compensate displaced villagers for their losses. Many villagers told Human Rights Watch that the authorities would give them permission to return only if they signed statements absolving the government of responsibility for their original displacement. Villagers also find it nearly impossible to get any official written statement from the authorities either granting or denying their right to return. Human Rights Watch said the authorities seem determined to avoid creating a paper trail that may end up in court.

Human Rights Watch said the government's much-heralded return programs are under-funded and ill conceived, falling far short of established international standards.

"The empty promises and inaction are wearing villagers down," said Sugden.

The Village Return and Rehabilitation Project announced in March 1999 has yielded nothing more than a feasibility study for return to 12 model villages, as yet unpublished. Other programs appear designed to prioritize return for villages controlled by village guards or to resettle villagers in central villages, often impractically distant from the villagers' agricultural lands.

Human Rights Watch noted that the Turkish government's defective return plans have failed to attract backing from international donors that have pledged billions in aid for return of the displaced and reconstruction in other post-conflict settings, such as Bosnia and Kosovo.

"The government's schemes don't meet international standards, so they haven't received international funding," Sugden said. "Instead of helping villagers get assistance from development organizations, the government is standing in their path."

The government's return programs also suffer from a lack of transparency. The government has reportedly come to a secret agreement with the army about the future of the region. Yet it has failed to consult with civil society groups, including professional organizations with relevant expertise. Human Rights Watch was unable to obtain from any government official any written description of the Return to Village and Rehabilitation Project, or any of the other return programs. Officials in the Office of the Prime Minister responsible for the programs declined to meet with Human Rights Watch researchers and failed to respond to written requests for information.

To address the problem of the displaced, Human Rights Watch urged the Turkish government to take a number of steps, including:

• As an urgent priority, set up a planning forum with representatives of governmental, nongovernmental and intergovernmental organizations with relevant expertise, as well as representatives of displaced villagers, to develop a comprehensive plan for the safe return of displaced villagers to their homes, in accordance with the U.N. Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.

• Permit villagers to return to their own homes unless there are legitimate security reasons to prevent this, such as continued armed conflict or the presence of landmines that would endanger civilian lives.

• Take measures at all levels of government to stop the harassment of internally displaced persons, the recently returned, and those who assist them.

• Abolish the village guard system.

• Ensure that infrastructure for villages and hamlets is restored at least to the standard prior to their destruction and evacuation, at state cost.

• Publish comprehensive information about the progress of returns, including a verifiable list of communities that have returned and the names of villages open for return or temporarily closed to return.

Human Rights Watch also urged governments and funding agencies to promote this agenda with the Turkish government and to commit resources to fund return plans that comply with international standards.

The following are excerpts of witness testimony contained in the Human Rights Watch report:

A villager burned out of his home in Diyarbakir province in 1993 told Human Rights Watch:

This year we wanted to go back. Some villagers have gone back. The authorities said to them you are going to have to sign a form. They had to fill in the form saying that the village was burned by the PKK. The local governor said to us, "If you say the government did it, we will not let you go back." We said, "If that is the condition, we will not fill in the form. Why should we lie?"
- Human Rights Watch interview, Diyarbakir, June 22, 2001.

A villager forcibly displaced from his home in Siirt province in 1995 told Human Rights Watch:

At the moment it would be impossible for me to go back because the most low ranked soldier or village guard can kick me about and there is nothing I can do about it. I went and applied to the gendarmerie for permission to gather fruit. You can see our village from the road. The master sergeant said I could tend the trees but added, "Do not look at your village when you pass, just walk straight on." It is our custom to visit our parents' graves on festivals, but we have not been able to do this since the village was burned.
- Human Rights Watch interview, Siirt, June 27, 2001.

One villager who was shot and nearly killed when he returned to his village in Diyarbakir province in 2001 told Human Rights Watch:

We are not going to go back to our village while there is this serious threat. Not while there are village guards. These people are former neighbors of mine-and some of the village guards I even considered friends.… If the village guard system is abolished we will go home. As soon as there is peace we will return.
-Human Rights Watch interview, Diyarbakir, June 23, 2001.