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Human rights groups call for investigation into Turkish mass graves

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  • Human rights groups call for investigation into Turkish mass graves

    Human rights groups call for investigation into Turkish mass graves

    AP Worldstream; Jul 08, 2005
    SUZAN FRASER


    Two sisters of a slain Kurdish guerrilla urged authorities on Friday
    to conduct tests on what they said were two mass graves containing
    headless bodies discovered in southeastern Turkey to determine whether
    their brother's body is among the remains.

    Human rights groups are also demanding an investigation into the
    possibility that the remains belong to guerrillas who may have been
    caught alive and later shot in the head and beheaded to hide evidence
    of executions.

    Villagers discovered two mass graves in Bitlis province holding the 27
    headless remains of people a year ago after coming across soiled
    clothing, human rights groups said Friday. A third grave with 11
    bodies was also discovered near the town of Kulp in Diyarbakir last
    year. The graves are believed to have been dug in the mid-1990s, at
    the height of the brutal conflict between the military and Kurdish
    guerrillas.

    Lawmakers rushed to the region last year to investigate the grave near
    Kulp, conceding that the remains appeared to be those of missing
    villagers.

    Gen. Ilker Basbug, deputy head of the military, denied any military
    involvement in the Kulp deaths, saying claims against security forces
    in the southeast were attempts to get compensation through the
    European court or win support for the rebels.

    Human rights activists say nothing has been done since and have
    threatened to take the sisters' case to the Strasbourg, France-based
    European Court of Human Rights.

    "It has almost been a year and nothing has been done," said Nazime
    Avras, sister of Mehmet Sabri Avras, a missing militant. "We just want
    a proper grave, we're not asking for much."

    The family was told that Mehmet Sabri Avras, a member of the Kurdistan
    Workers' Party, or PKK, was killed in fighting between the rebels and
    the military in Bitlis in 1995. His body was never handed over to the
    family, the sisters said.

    Human rights groups say remains from the graves were handed over to
    prosecutors shortly after they were found but no autopsies or DNA
    tests have been conducted, said Nedim Tas, the head of THY-DER, an
    organization that supports families of prisoners.

    The graves also contained bodies with no heads, leading to suspicion
    that the militants were executed with a gunshot to the head and later
    decapitated to hide the shootings, said Kazim Genc, head of the human
    rights organization, Pir Sultan Abdal.

    Mehmet Elkatmis, the head of the parliament's human rights commission
    which investigated the Kulp mass grave, did not immediately return
    calls for comment.

    Some 37,000 people have died in the conflict between the rebels and
    the military, which began in 1984. The rebels have recently stepped up
    attacks, detonating remote-controlled bombs on train tracks and roads
    used by the military.
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