SPECIAL REPORT ON DIYARBAKIR PROVINCE BISMIL DISTRICT UGRAK VILLAGE

DİYARBAKIR PROVINCE BİSMİL DISTRICT UĞRAK VILLAGE RURAL GUARD ATTACK OBSERVATION- INVESTIGATION REPORT

CASE
As a result of an armed attack of the rural guards, the case of three people's death and four people's injury from the members of TEKİN and TANGÜNER families who returned to their villages for settlement on 26.09.2002 which they had been obliged to evacuate in 1994

COMPOSITION OF THE COMMITTEE:
The committee composed of M. Hanifi IŞIK, regional representative of HRA, Att. Metin KILAVUZ, member of HRA General Executive Board, Att. Selahattin DEMİRTAŞ, HRA Diyarbakýr branch President, Att. Serdar TALAY, GÖÇ-DER Diyarbakır branch president, Att. Muharrem ERBEY, Att. Ayla AKAT and A. Kadir AYDIN, HRA Diyarbakır branch administrators made certain investigations on 27.09.2002 for the purpose of announcing the observations and investigations made in Diyarbakır and Bismil related to the event, by collecting them in a report.

A second committee was composed in order to visit Uğrak Village again, where the event occurred and to make investigations in the place of event and this committee made investigations in Uğrak village on 30.09.2002. The committee is composed of the following; M. Hanifi IŞIK, regional representative of HRA, Att. Selahattin DEMİRTAŞ, HRA Diyarbakýr branch President, Att. Serdar TALAY, GÖÇ-DER Diyarbakır branch president, Vezir PERİŞAN, Diyarbakir Municipality Branch President, M. Sait KAYA, Diyarbakir branch president, Kemal AKGÜL, President of the branch number 2.

INTERVIEWS THAT THE COMITTEE MADE
The members of the committee made interviews with the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor of the Republic, Bismil Governor, Bismil Public Prosecutor of the Republic, the mistreated who were wounded in the event and the eyewitnesses and they also visited the place of the event and made certain investigations.

1. Sait GÜRLEK (Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor of the Republic): The committee members demanded to obtain information concerning the stage arrived in the preliminary proceeding opened related to the case, if there are any accused person or people and the direction towards which the proceeding was being held and the Chief Public Prosecutor of the Republic declared that he followed the case from the press, the case was beyond his authority, the Bismil Chief Public Prosecutorship of the Republic was investigating the event and no information related to the investigation was transferred to him.

2. İdris AKBİL (by proxy to the Bismil Governor): The Governor who stated that in fact, he was the Governor of Çınar District and he was performing the Governor duty by proxy in Bismil District for three days but he had information concerning the development of the case made the following declaration:

"At the beginning of September, members of TEKİN and TANGÜNER families declared that they wanted to return to their village by applying to the Governorship by petition. Their petitions were transferred to the District Gendarmerie Commandership and a reply was given approximately ten days ago that there were no obstacles for them to return to their village. Then, a few people from the families who wanted to return and settle down to their village on 26.09.2002 returned to the District Center at the same day and orally demanded security measures to be taken. Upon the demand, the District Gendarmerie Commander Captain went to the village in person and tried to overcome the security problem of the villagers. A blood feud is present between the families since 1979. The Captain stated that one person from each family would come to the District after one day and he would reconcile them. The event occurred 20 minutes after he left the village. 3 rural guards went to the Gendarmerie Station and said that they wanted to leave their weapons to prevent any event. He expressed that the judicial investigation was initiated, 4 people were captured up to that moment, he also went to the village at the event night and he felt very sorry for the event and such events should have been kept discrete".

3. Salim DEMİR (Bismil Governor): Bismil Governor Salim DEMİR with whom the members of the committee composed on 30.09.2002 made an interview implied that; he was on leave at the date on which the event occurred, however he followed the developments related to the event, the event was totally a personal event and had no social aspects, it was a saddening event occurred among the citizens because of a land conflict, the Governorships of the province and the district had already initiated works in this subject, he did not think that it was right that the committee went to the village and the entrance of the committee to village could have been impeded by stating that he would give an instruction to the Gendarmerie to this end.

4. İlkay ÖZCAN (Bismil Public Prosecutor of the Republic): Bismil Public Prosecutor of the Republic İlkay ÖZCAN with whom the committee made an interview has given the following information to the committee members;
"The Public Prosecutor of the Republic who declared that the Prosecutor investigating the case was in fact the Prosecutor İlhan KÖSE but he assisted the competent prosecutor in the investigation has stated that they went to the place of event upon the notification of the event to them however, they could not make sufficient observations as the area was dark, the Gendarmerie authorities blocked the place of event, Prosecutor Ýlhan KÖSE went to the place of event again in the morning of the event in order to collect evidence and make an exploration, the investigation was being continued multilaterally, there were captured and fugitive suspects, testimonies of many eyewitnesses were taken and he could not give detailed information about the captured or searched people at this stage."

1. Hüseyin TANGÜNER (1987):
The summary of the information related to the event obtained from Hüseyin TANGÜNER who was one of the eyewitnesses who survived from the attack is as follows:
"We were forced to migrate to Diyarbakır from Uğrak village in the year of 1994. After staying in Diyarbakýr for nearly 8 years, we won the lawsuit that our families had brought at law. Besides, we applied to ECHR as we were forced to migrate from the village. The rural guards have been planting our lands and they have been living in our houses by force for 8 years. On 26.09.2002, as approximately 35-40 people from TEKİN and TANGÜNER families, we went to our village from Diyarbakır for settling down by 2 pick-ups, one minibus and one taxi about 12:00 o'clock. As we just started to take our furnitures down from the pick-up, rural guards opened fire to air two times.

Then, the noncommissioned officer who was the commander of the Kamışlı Police Station 1 km. far from our village and soldiers arrived to our village. We explained the situation to the noncommissioned officer. He demanded an act of writing from the Bismil District Gendarmerie Commandment in order to let us settle down in the Uğrak village. My father Mehmet TANGÜNER, Mehdi and Sait TANGÜNER went to Bismil to talk to the captain. They returned to the village together with the captain. The captain told us that the winter was about to come and it would be difficult to build a house. We told him that if he gave us permission, it would take 15 days to build a house. But, we would pitch tents for that moment. He asked "Are you gypsies?" addressing to us. He said "Bring the little children away from here, let them go to school".

Emin GÜÇLÜ who is the headmen of the Uğrak village and the temporary rural guard has been living in the house of a relative of us; Şerif TEKÝN without permission and by force. The captain said "One older person of your family and one person from the GÜÇLÜ family who is the rural guard come and let's talk". The old person of our family, Mahdi TANGÜNER went near the captain and said "If you go away, they would kill us, we have no security of life". The captain said that the weapons in their hands belonged to the Government and they could not do anything to us and they left. Meanwhile, Emin GÜÇLÜ, who was the head of the rural guards, went towards the Police Station after talking to the rural guards.

"5-10 minutes after the captain and the soldiers crossed the hill, two rural guards appeared from the stream and two appeared from the back side of the hill and opened fire on with long barreled Kalashnikov weapons. We all lied down on the ground around 19:00.

The cross fire continued approximately for 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, our Renault Toros marked vehicle which operated with LPG started to burn and blown up with explosions as a result of the opened fire. It was dark but the night suddenly enlightened as the morning by the explosions. We were so frightened, we could not stand up, take care of our wounded relatives and we were hearing sounds of crying and groaning. 15 minutes after the rural guards left the place of event, the vehicle of the soldiers arrived. They stopped 100 meters far and came to the place of event slowly. We brought the wounded first to the Police Station and then to the State Hospital of Bismil with the vehicle of the soldiers. Then, we gave our testimonies in the Police Station".

2. Ömer TANGÜNER (1973):
Ömer TANGÜNER who survived from the attack has given the following information:
" While we were residing in Bismil District Uğrak Village, my family has left the village and migrated to Diyarbakır for the security reasons. After we left the village, our houses and lands were occupied by Emin GÜÇLÜ who was the headman of village and the head of the rural guards at the same time. Not only we couldn't go to our village for years but also we couldn't make use of our lands. Two years ago, we wanted to prevent arbitrary usage of the lands by opening a lawsuit. Measure was put on the land in favor of us with Court decision three months ago. Besides, we applied to ECHR concerning the evacuation and fire set to our village. This case is still on judgement.

Together with decision of measure taken by the court, we notified that we wanted to return to the village by applying to the District Governorship and Center Police Station Commandership by petition. We were notified orally that we could return to our village. We stated that we wanted a written reply but we were informed that; "This village was not involved in the evacuated villages" so we didn't need a written permission to return to the village and use our lands.

Upon this information we started to do our preparations for returning to the village together with the village habitants of whom the majority were relatives. On 26.09.2002, we took road to go to the village in the morning and we arrived around 12.30. Just as we got out of the vehicles, the rural guards Emin GÜÇLÜ, Hanifi GÜÇLÜ, Ahmet GÜÇLÜ, Hasan GÜÇLÜ, Hüseyin GÜÇLÜ and İbrahim GÜÇLÜ began to run towards us. İbrahim GÜÇLÜ opened fire to air two times. They began to swear and said "What are you doing here? Why did you come?". Meanwhile one of us demanded help by calling the Kamışlı Police Station which is quite close to our village. After approximately five minutes, the specialist sergeant and four or five soldiers came with a vehicle. We told that fire was opened to us. He said "I didn't hear". Then, he told us that it was necessary to bring a written permission if we wanted to return our village. He told us to pack and reload the furnitures we brought down from the vehicles. We asked his permission to see the District Governor and the Captain. He said "Yes".

Mehmet Mehdi TANGÜNER, Sait TANGÜNER, Ömer TANGÜNER and İkram TEKİN left for going to Bismil for talking to the Governor and the Captain. We waited together with the specialist sergeant and the soldiers, surrounded by the rural guards. My father's uncle and his son were coming to visit us from the neighbor village. The rural guards stopped the vehicle and began to swear and beat the ones in the vehicle. Meanwhile, the soldiers went towards them and set them apart and sent our relatives back by making them get into the vehicle again.

Our relatives who went to talk to the Captain could not have talked to him as he was not in his office and they went to the Governorship. They talked to the Bismil Governor. The Governor called the Captain and sent them back to the Police Station. Afterwards, they came to the village with the Captain.

When the Captain arrived, he first talked to the rural guards and then, he came near us. He told us; "Nobody can use force against nobody, you will get on well with each other, if you don't; I know what to do to you. Each two parties constitute a committee among them selves in a week, we will reconcile you". Meanwhile, the person named Hanifi GÜÇLÜ came to the place where we were talking and told; "My commander, we will have trouble, this family can not stay here tonight". The Commander kept silent. We told that we had no security of life, they were coming on us with weapons and at least it was necessary to take their weapons or keep the soldiers in the village. The Commander said; "They can not do anything to you, they can not shot at you by the weapons of the Government", and he left the village. The head of the rural guards Emin GÜÇLÜ went towards the Police Station after giving some instructions to the other rural guards. After approximately ten minutes, Hanifi GÜÇLÜ, Ahmet GÜÇLÜ, Hasan GÜÇLÜ, Hüseyin GÜÇLÜ and İbrahim GÜÇLÜ opened cross fire on us from the front and back of the place where we stood. There were no places to protect ourselves. We all lied down. The ones who kept standing were shot. They were swearing. They told; "So you even have a car" and started to rake the car. The car caught fire and little explosions occurred. They were telling; "Did you think that this village would be left to you?" There were shouting but we could not raise our heads. The rack took for nearly 15 minutes. They ran away then. We could not even stand up and take care of the wounded because of the fear that they would come back and shoot again. Because they were shooting directly on us. Soldiers came after approximately 15 minutes. The Specialist Sergeant was again leading the soldiers. They took care of the wounded together with us and helped us to bring them to the hospital. Three of us lost their lives (Nezir TEKİN; nearly 60 years old, İkram TEKİN; nearly 45 years old, Agit TEKİN; 7-8 years old). 4 people were severely wounded (Güzel TEKİN; nearly 60 years old, Veysi TEKİN; nearly 25 years old, Erhan TEKİN; nearly 16 years old, Mazlum TEKİN; nearly 10 years old). In the course of the event, Mehdi, Mehmet, Vahibe, Münevver, Zeynep, Mehmet and Hasan TANGÜNER and Süleyman, Mehmet and Gülistan TEKİN and many of the people from the families were present as the mistreated eyewitnesses of the event.

3. Mehmet KURT:
Mehmet Kurt, who was obliged to leave while residing in the same village and who was not in the village at the day of event, gave the information summarized below at his interview with the committee members:
"We, as the Uğrak villagers, have been obliged to leave our village nearly 8 years ago. Nobody except for GÜÇLÜ family at the neighbor arable field was left in our village which was composed of 65 houses in total. They could have stayed in the village as they were rural guards. More than nine-thousand acres of land belonging to our village is present. I did not take even one step into my village which is 70 km. far from Diyarbakýr for long years. The rural guards are trying to prevent the return of the villagers to the village in order not to give our lands which they have confiscated back."

VISIT TO THE HOSPITALIZED WOUNDED
Our committee visited the people wounded in the event on 27.09.2002, obtained information related to their health conditions and presented its wishes for getting well soon.

1. Mazlum TEKİN (12): He could not be seen as he was under intensive care and it was told that his vital risk was still continuing.

2. Güzel TEKİN (55): She has four bullet wounds. One is at the shoulder, one is at the leg, one is at the interior part of the leg and one has grazed the lip. It was told that she had no vital risk.

3. Erhan TEKİN (16): He is hospitalized in the orthopedics service, intensive care unit. His left knee is torn into pieces. It is told that he had no vital risk.

4. Veysi TEKİN (25): He is hospitalized in the emergency. He has 2 bullet wounds. His right arm is torn into pieces. It is told that he had no vital risk.

The mistreated family first wanted to bury their corpse in the Uğrak village and a skimmer belonging to the Bismil Municipality was sent in order to dig the graves. However, Emin GÜÇLÜ who was the head of the rural guards and who was waiting together with the gendarmeries in front of the Kamışlı Police Station found at the entrance of the village did not let the skimmer enter the village and sent the skimmer conductor back by telling; "They will not be buried in the cemetery of this village, you go and tell the one who sent you to come here". The family has buried their corpse to the cemetery found at the city center after making an evaluation among them and relevant information was given to our committee by the family.

DETERMINATIONS
1. Our committee has determined that the said event constitutes an annoyance particularly for the migrated families and is being perceived as a separate and different obstacle for returning to the village.

2. It is understood that the event in question does not originate from blood feud, the main goal is towards preventing the return and settlement of the villagers to their village and thus, to prevent them from claiming their ownership on their lands. As a matter of fact, while all the dead and wounded people in the event are the members of TEKİN family, the blood feud claimed to be experienced 20 years ago and concluded was between GÜÇLÜ and TANGÜNER families.

3. Our committee has the impression that the rural guards act as authorities in spite of the Gendarmerie and they even perform the duties such as road controls etc. which in fact should have been performed by the Gendarmerie.

4. In the event in question, even though the returning villagers have warned the District Governor and the Captain and demanded their security to be provided, ,it is determined that the subject was not followed up with sufficient seriousness and the villagers were left for the "justice" of the rural guards by the Captain in person.

5. It is determined that the Noncommissioned officer charged in the Kamışlı Police Station knew that the rural guards opened fire to air in the noon, before the event has occurred, and did not investigate this issue, did not perform any legal procedures, he even wanted the returning villagers to leave the village and no legal investigation was initiated related to the said Noncommissioned officer.

6. When the contradictory transmissions of the official authorities and the conduct of the investigation of the event are considered, it is seen that the event in question was first tried to be shown as a blood feud and then, tried to be reflected as a simple land conflict and the matter that the people who committed murder were the personnel of a unit bounded to the armed forces of the Government and they committed murder with the weapons to the charge of the Government was not emphasized.

RESULT AND DEMAND
" Necessary conditions for the safe return of the villagers who have been obliged to migrate from their village and who wanted to return to their village should be provided, indemnity of their damages and financial assistance should be provided by considering the necessity of the re-contribution of these villagers into production and it should be assured that the actual obstacles for returning to the village are eliminated.

" The rural guardian system which continuously causes discussions in the society and which gained the quality of a criminal organization should immediately be annulled and the weapons should be taken back without waiting for the amendment aiming at it's annulment.

" Works should be performed for the employment of rural guards of whom, the number exceeds seventy- thousand, probabilities should be created in order to have them return to farming which is their real occupation and to have them contribute to the production.

" The weapon of the head of the rural guards; Emin GÜÇLÜ who was the determinator of the event according to the expressions of the eyewitnesses should immediately be taken back and legal investigation should be initiated for him.

" Investigation should be initiated related to Bismil District Gendarmerie Commander Captain and Kamışlı Police Station Commander Noncommissioned officer for neglecting the duty and these authorities should immediately loose their posts for the successful resulting of the investigation.

" Serious and persuasive security measures should be taken in order to have the mistreated families who could not have returned to their village for 8 years and whose last returning initiation was prevented by violence and the other families who want to return to the same village, return to their village in safety, the damages of the villagers should be indemnified and financial assistance should be provided for building houses.