WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS MASS GRAVE?
(The shooting and burning of the bodies of 8 peasants is a blatant act of genocide)
The dark events regarding enforced disappearances in our region since the 1990s are coming to the forefront one by one. At that time, while human rights defenders, press members and politicians who were bringing this issue to public attention and demanding that it be researched were being exposed to attacks and lawsuits, no procedures were being carried out against solders, village guards, or JİTEM members implicated in such events, and if anyone did anything they were obstructed in short order. In reality, during that dark period, everyone knew that people were being executed after being detained, but they were silent. The inability of people killed in the mountains to be identified by their spouses without fear displayed the extent of the terror and fear that was created in those days.
On 12 June 1994 8 burnt bodies were found in Düzpelit field in the Malase Kevirikok area of Bağcılar village in Kulp district. In an official report regarding file 1994/70 June at the Kulp Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, it’s written that “it was established that the corpses of eight males had several bullet entry and exit wounds, severe deformities and bone fractures in the arms and legs, that the death was connected to firearms and burnings, a tobacco case that was found next to the burned bodies was pierced with a bullet hole, the bodies were dressed in şalvar pants, grey sweaters, thin belts and black shoes, and in the surrounding area there were many empty buckets”. It’s become clear that the public prosecutor’s office sent the file to the Diyarbakır State Security Court on 09 August 1994 because the incident did not fall within their jurisdiction, with the following rationale: “due to the deceased individuals’ being members of an organization involved with clashes with security forces, or being killed in order to setle disputes within the organization, the organization often does this to their activists.”
We don’t know what transpired after this event but the statements applicant Muhlise Adigüzel made to the Diyarbakır State Security Court on 12 May 2002 are quite noteworthy. In Kurdish, speaking through a court clerk, she said, “in 1994, soldiers and village guards came to my husband Kuddusi Adigüzel at night and tortured him with his hands behind his back until the morning. They took him away later. I went to the Prosecutor’s Office, and they said that my husband hadn’t been detained by the gendarmerie or national police force, but that he had been kidnapped by an organization. Three months after my husband disappeared, we went to the place where 8 corpses were found. I recognized my husband’s clothing, but because I was afraid I couldn’t say anything at that time.”
Witness Kasım Altun, in a statement dated 14 March 2003, stated that “in 1994 she recognized Kuddusi’s face among the 8 bodies in the village but couldn’t say anything because she was afraid.” According to all of these statements, the grave was dug up, bones were sent to a forensic medical laboratory, and the results of the DNA tests that were carried out on them were negative. It should be mentioned that relatives of the Örhan family were also disappeared on that date, and that they applied to the Human Rights Association to bring forward the possibility that their own relatives were among the 8 corpses.
Relatives of Hasan, Cezayir and M. Selim Örhan — all detained in 1994 by the Bolu Commando Brigade of the Turkish army – sent blood samples to a forensic medical laboratory for a DNA test. As a result of the DNA investigation of the eight bodies, it was revealed that two of the bodies were Hasan Örhan and Mehmet Selim Örhan.
On 25 June 2008, the Bulut family also applied to the Diyarbakır Public Prosecutor’s Office through the Human Rights Association. The family had given a blood sample to the public prosecutor’s office on the basis of the possibility that Ekrem, Ramazan, Ali, Mustafa and Fahri Bulut — all detained by the army on 19 May 1994 – could have been among the 8 shot-up and burned bodies found in Düzpelit field in the Kevirokok area of Bağcılar village in Kulp district on 12 June 1994. The results from the forensic medical laboratory revealed that the bones belonged to Ali Bulut, Ekrem Bulut and Ramazan Bulut.
In United Nations General Assembly resolution 61/177 of 20 December 2006 –the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance – regulations concerning enforced disappearances are made clear. According to witness statements, it was plainly evident that members of the Örhan and Bulut families had been detained by village guards and soldiers. Mysteriously, however, upon seeing the corpses, the prosecutor who was responsible for the investigation at that time evaluated the incident without hesitation as an “organization’s internal execution.” Considering that relatives and witnesses had said that soldiers had detained members of the Örhan and Bulut families, we don’t know how the prosecutor could have had this conviction.
In a 1 January 2005 statement published in Gündem newspaper, witness Ramazan Ayçiçeği was quoted as saying “on that date, I was detained and tortured with the Örhan family in Lice Regional Primary Boarding School, and later the Örhans’ clothes were put on and they wanted to bring us to a rural area”. No one has considered this. However, the convention concerning enforced disapperances states the following clearly:
Article 1: (second clause) No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearance.
Article 2: For the purposes of this Convention, “enforced disappearance” is considered to be the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.
As this convention was being ratified, results of DNA tests revealed that 2 people from the Örhan family and 3 members of the Bulut family – all detained in front of witnesses in the Lice and Kulp districts in the year 1994 – were executed and disposed of by the state while under detention.
Regarding those serving in the Bolu Mountain Command Brigade in Lice district, from where and from who were they taking orders? Why is it that although so many allegations about torture and executions carried out by the Bolu Mountain Command Brigade have surfaced in both domestic law and the European Court of Human Rights procedures aren’t being initiated and those responsible aren’t being tried? Is it because the Bolu Mountain Command Brigade is under the state’s control?
The identities of 5 of the 8 shot-up and later burned bodies that were discovered in 1994 have been established but those of the remaining three have not. We’re calling out to the families of those who were detained and disappeared around Lice and Kulp in April, May, and June 1994. Please apply to the Human Rights Association for the disappeared as soon as possible. Furthermore, we’re calling out to the prosecutors responsible for the Ergenekon investigation. When is the investigation going to include the Kurdish regions? When will the executions and burnings of living people that have taken place here be investigated?
We’re also calling out to people of conscience. If you know anything about or saw anything related to this genocide please share it with us and the public. Try to see the void left in these families, the pain of having lost relatives. Have empathy. Think of a member of a family you love dearly not having a grave.
These are not isolated, unrelated events. We want them to be investigated as a group by a truth research commission. We as the Human Rights Association are prepared to serve in a commission and share the information we have. The time has come to face the past. The trust felt by the relatives of the disappeared in the state and justice has been bruised in a very serious way. The right to life is sacred and untouchable. We want the graves of the 1,500 people disappeared in the region between 1990 and 2000 to be located at once. We demand that those who drowned people in wells without batting an eye, and those who shot to death and later burned people be tried immediately.
Muharrem Erbey, Attorney at Law
Vice President of the Human Rights Associaton, President of the Diyarbakır branch