seHRW Documents on Turkey
Turkey Fails Displaced Villagers
International donors shun government's defective
return plans
(Istanbul, October 30, 2002) The Turkish government, security forces
and paramilitaries are obstructing the return of hundreds of thousands
of displaced villagers to their homes in the formerly war-torn southeast,
Human Rights Watch said in a new report </reports/2002/turkey/> released
today.
"This human rights problem
directly affects more people in Turkey than any other single human
rights issue. 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." Jonathan
Sugden, Human Rights Watch Turkey researcher
Human Rights Watch called
on the Turkish government to engage with relevant international
and nongovernmental organizations to develop and finance a new comprehensive
return plan in line with international standards.
"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 <http://hrw.org/reports/2002/turkey/>,
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.
|
