2017-03-10 15:52:07
Turkish security forces committed “serious violations” of human rights during operations against Kurdish rebels since the end of the ceasefire in 2015, the UN denounced this Friday, which again calls for an urgent independent investigation. The United Nations puts the number of displaced people between 355,000 and 500,000.
In his first report on the subject, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights detailed the “allegations of mass destruction, killings and numerous other serious human rights violations committed between July 2015 and December 2016 in southeastern Turkey during government security operations”.
In the Turkish southeast with a Kurdish majority, daily fighting between the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered a “terrorist” organization by Ankara, Brussels and Washington, and the security forces, has not stopped since the breakdown of the ceasefire. the fire in mid-2015.
The conflict has left more than 40,000 dead since 1984. According to the UN, operations carried out by Turkish security forces between July 2015 and the end of 2016 affected more than 30 towns, some neighborhoods were razed and between 335,000 and 500,000 people were displaced, mostly Kurds.
The High Commissioner, whom Turkey has not authorized to enter the area, made his report based on UN satellite images, interviews with the victims (witnesses or their families) and information from several NGOs.
‘Excessive use of force’
About 2,000 people, including 800 members of the security forces and 1,200 inhabitants of the region “would have died in the framework of security operations in southeastern Turkey”according to the UN.
Among the 1,200 civilians killed, “an undetermined number could be involved in non-violent actions against the State,” the report states.
“The Turkish government did not grant us access, but questioned the veracity of the very serious accusations published in the document,” High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in a statement.
“But the seriousness of the accusations, the escalation of destruction and the displacement of more than 355,000 people warrant an urgent and necessary independent investigation.“, he added. In its report, the UN indicates that there was “excessive use of force, murders, forced disappearances, acts of torture.”
The High Commissioner says he is “especially alarmed by the results of the analysis of satellite images that reveal massive destruction of homes with heavy weapons.”
For example, the destruction of entire neighborhoods is described in the city of Nusaybin, in the province of Mardin, where 1,786 properties were destroyed or damaged.
In May 2016, before the failed July 2016 coup in Turkey, The High Commissioner published a statement denouncing the violations committed by the Turkish security forces during operations against the PKK.
Since then, Ankara has not carried out any investigation, laments the UN, which considers the measures adopted since the coup d’état worrying.
AFP
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