Submitted by admin on Thursday, July 15 2010
The Foreign Affairs Commission of Kurdistan National Congress 15.07.2010- "We want to draw your attention to atrocities and war crimes committed by the Turkish army.Humanity has been trying since the earliest ages to create a law of war and for over 150 years has applied some form of treaty for the rules of war time. Turkey is an subscriber to many of the international agreements that are now in place. But unfortunately when the Kurds is the issue then Turkey changes her rules and ´forgets´ these international treaty obligations. But it is not only the Kurds who are suffering from these atrocities. The destiny of 1,612 prisoners of war from Cyprus, that was invaded by Turkey in 1974, is still unknown.
In our country there is an ongoing war of 26 years duration. During these years neither the Turkish army nor the governments have applied the rules of war and have always committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. Thousands of villages and pastures have been burned down and ruthless destruction of forest conducted. As another result of the war millions of people have been displaced or left no choice except to leave their homes. Hundreds of thousands of people have been tortured, many more killed or executed in the streets without any fair trial. Many outlawed weapons were used and guerrillas that were captured were killed after heavy torture, their bodies burned and mutilated amounting to atrocities against humanity.
For two months now the war has escalated. The Turkish army is again conducting the same atrocites as before. During the last 20 days bodies of guerrillas have been captured during the war in suburbs of Siirt, Hakkari and Gumushane. The bodies of killed guerrillas have been tortured. Many of these bodies have eyes, noses, hands, fingers, heads cut off and some of them have been totally destroyed. The corpses are unable to be recognized.
Turkey has signed the 1949 War Treaty of Geneva. According to this agreement: ´´ It is forbidden to torture the bodies of those killed during the war. The killed ones should be treated with respect and their tombs should be approached with respect as expected.´´But the Turkish army is still conducting war crimes.
In order to leave no hiding place for the guerrillas, forests are being burned in Kurdistan. Right now the forests around Sirnak, Hakkari, Siirt, Dersim, Bingol, Mardin and Bitlis are being burned by the Turkish army. The inhabitants around these regions are being prevented from extinguishing the fire. Right now thousands of acres of fields are turned into ashes. The Geneva Convention has a lot of rules covering the safety of the environment and the banning the destroying of forests;´´Damaging war methods that are continuing for a long time in a very large forest area are forbidden. Annihilation of forests and environment is not allowed to be used as a weapon.´´ What the Turkish army is doing here is also another war crime.
These are very concrete examples. If no prevention takes place, the Turkish army will continue its atrocities as previously. The above mentioned issues are being reported every day in the media.
Hereby we attach a dossier with pictures related to these urgent issues. We would like you to give them your urgent and serious attention and believe that you will show your sensitivity and draw the right conclusions.
Photos of Kurdish Guerrilla - June 2010
The bodies of guerrillas have had their eyes gouged out,
Their heads broken, Their arms, legs and bodies cut off.
IS THIS NOTA WAR CRIME?
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE ATROCITIES?
