http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/women/2000/appeal_turkey.html
TURKEY: Young Women Raped and Sexually Assaulted in Custody (Update)
"Women may be vulnerable to violence perpetrated by persons in positions of authority in both conflict and non-conflict situations. Training of all officials in humanitarian and human right law and the punishment of perpetrators of violent acts against women would help to ensure that such violence does not take place at the hands of public officials in whom women should be able to place trust, including police and prison officials and security forces".
Beijing Platform for Action, Strategic Objective D, paragraph 122.
PHOTO: © Özgür Bakis
Kurdish young women On separate days in early March 1999 two Kurdish young women -- 16-year-old high school student N.C.S (1). and 19-year-old student Fatma Deniz Polatta-- were arrested by police authorities and detained at the Anti-Terror Branch of police headquarters in Iskenderun, Turkey, for seven and five days respectively. The young women claim to have been tortured and forced to give false confessions while in police custody.
According to the young women's testimony, their torture included rape and other sexual assault. They were kept blindfolded throughout their detention. For the first two days, N.C.S. was forced to stand continuously, prevented from sleeping and from using the toilet, and denied food and drink except for sour milk. She was forced to strip and remain naked in a cold room. During the interrogation she was beaten all over her body -- with blows directed especially at her head, genitals, buttocks and breasts -- and forced to sit on a wet floor for long periods before being made to roll naked in water. On other occasions she was suspended from the arms and hosed with pressurized cold water. She was threatened that she would be killed and that her mother would be raped.
Fatma Deniz Polatta was reportedly subjected to the same methods of torture as N.C.S. She was also threatened that both her father and her mother would be raped in front of her and that her father would be dismissed from his job. At one stage she was punched on her face and one of her teeth broke. Later, she was also raped:
"A police officer asked me to 'take off my trousers and socks.' I was scared and obeyed. I was standing. A police officer in uniform asked me to 'bend over'. Afterwards he pushed something into my behind. It was something long and serrated. At that moment I started to bleed. I was bent fully over [but] they were beating me with their sticks, saying 'stand up straight'."
After this incident, one of the police officers involved in the torture reportedly said to her, "Even if you go to a doctor, you cannot prove anything." Indeed, at the beginning and at the end of their time in police custody the young women were seen by five different state-appointed doctors, including gynaecologists on 6, 9 and 12 March. None of the doctors reported any signs of violence, although -- acting without the consent of the young women or their parents -- the doctors did perform "virginity tests". However, a "virginity test" (examination of the hymen) does not prove whether a rape has taken place, since rape can take place without penetration that breaks the hymen. Furthermore, the independent Turkish Medical Association has stated in 1992 that "virginity examination" is a form of gender-based violence and an assault to the woman's sexual identity. It can have traumatic effects. In January 1999, the Ministry of Justice issued a decree to the country's prosecutors banning the practice of virginity examinations of women when there is no allegation of sexual assault. Amnesty International believes that forcibly subjecting detainees to so-called "virginity tests" is an egregious form of gender-based violence constituting torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
On 12 March, the two young women were remanded to prison by the State Security Court in Adana, charged with being members of the armed opposition group Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and with involvement in a Molotov cocktail attack during a demonstration. On 2 November 1999, Fatma Deniz Polatta was sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment. N.C.S. was sentenced to 12 years in prison, a lower sentence in recognition of her young age. The two young women claim that their convictions are based on statements extracted under torture, yet they remain in prison pending the decision of the Appeal Court.
In July 1999 four doctors from the Turkish Medical Association (TMA) were given access to the young women in prison. They were given permission to interview them but not to physically examine them. According to their report, the medical symptoms described by the young women corroborate their detailed torture testimonies.
The TMA noted that all official medical reports issued by the state-appointed doctors fall short of the Turkish Health Ministry's and the TMA's standards for forensic reports. The TMA emphasized the importance of appropriate medical examinations, including psychiatric examinations, in documenting evidence relating to the allegations of torture. The Association called for such examinations to be carried out with the consent of the two women alleging torture. The young women's lawyers also requested that the two young women be transferred to specialized psychiatric units to assess possible continuing trauma and to ensure that they receive correct treatment, but to date the young women still have not had access to this vital medical and psychiatric care. Complaints have also been filed against the state-appointed doctors for issuing medical reports that concealed torture.
In recent years Amnesty International has documented several cases of rape and sexual assault committed by security force members in Turkey. The experiences of N.C.S. and Fatma Deniz Polatta demonstrate the continuing vulnerability of children and women in Turkish police stations and prisons. During incommunicado detention in police or gendarmerie custody women and men are routinely stripped naked. Torture methods repeatedly reported to Amnesty International include electro-shocks and beating directed at genitals and women's breasts, sexual abuse, including rape or rape threats. Since mid-1997, a legal aid project in Istanbul aiming at bringing perpetrators to justice has been helping women who were raped by officials and subjected to other forms of sexual torture. Between mid-1997 and November 2000, 132 women sought the help of the legal aid project in Istanbul for women raped and sexually abused in custody. Ninety-seven of the women are Kurds, four are Roma, one is Bulgarian and one is German. The alleged perpetrators are mainly police officers (98 cases), but also include gendarmes, soldiers and village guards, and in one case, prison guards. They are rarely brought to justice. In 1999 Amnesty International documented a general climate of impunity for torturers.
UPDATE
AI has recently campaigned against the impunity of suspected torturers/rapists; for example in the cases of Fatma Deniz Polatta and N.C.S. Following a public outcry and international campaigning, four police officers were put on trial for torture. The two young women were transferred to a prison in Istanbul to enable them to receive psychiatric examinations and treatment. Psychiatric reports corroborate the young women' torture allegations. Psychiatrists in Istanbul specialized in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) examined N.C.S. eight times between June and September 2000 and Fatma Deniz Polatta nine times. A report stated that they suffer from chronic PTSD, but also from a major depression. The doctors conclude that both women experienced a trauma and that they need treatment.
The psychiatric reports were apparently prepared in October 2000. Yet, according to recent information, the court in Iskenderun which is hearing the trial of the four police officers has still not received original copies of these reports. Psychiatric reports are crucial for the investigation of the allegations of torture and especially of rape and sexual abuse for which physical medical evidence can only be obtained shortly after the violent act took place.
While the trial of four officers is ongoing with little progress, a separate trial has been opened against women and men who denounced rape in custody, among them Fatma Deniz Polatta, N.C.S.'s father, their lawyer and several women who alleged having been raped in custody. This trial is related to a conference in Istanbul called "No to sexual abuse and rape" on 10-11 June 2000 during which statements against rape and sexual abuse in custody were made. It appears that this trial is mainly targeted at silencing and deterring women and men who make public the use of sexual torture in custody and try to bring the perpetrators to justice.
TAKE ACTION!
FURTHER RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send telegrams/faxes/express/airmail letters, in good English where possible, or in your own language:
1. On the case of N.C. S. and Fatma Deniz Polatta
briefly summarizing the above case urging the government to take the following urgent steps to protect women and children from torture, including rape and sexual abuse, in detention:
* all officials involved in the custody, interrogation and medical care of detainees and prisoners should be informed that rape and sexual abuse are acts of torture or ill-treatment .
* welcoming that a trial has been opened on four police officers charged with having tortured N.C.S. and Fatma Deniz Polatta in police detention between 6 and 12 March 1999 and urging that the prepared psychiatric reports be considered;
* asking them to ensure that all police officers possibly involved in the torture should be held responsible and that they are suspended from duty while under investigation;
* expressing concern that the sentence against the women was upheld without waiting for the results of the investigations into their torture allegations.
Please send appeals to:
Minister of Justice
Professor Hikmet Sami Türk
Adalet Bakan,
Adalet Bakanl,
06659 Ankara, Turkey
Faxes: +90 312 418 5667 and +90 312 417 3954
Salutation: Dear Minister
State Minister responsible for women and children
Mr Hasan Gemici
Office of the Prime Minister
Babakanlk
06573 Ankara, Turkey
Faxes: +90 312 417 0476
Salutation: Dear Minister
Please send copies to the local branch of the Human Rights Association:
IHD Iskenderun
Ulucami Cad. Özaltn Apt. Kat:1 No. 7
Iskenderun
Turkey
and to the Turkish Embassy in your country.
2. Concerning the trial of women's rights activists in Istanbul:
Please write letters to the Justice Minister:
* expressing your concern about the trial against women and men who publicly criticized rape and sexual abuse in custody;
* calling for the charges brought against the women's rights activists to be dropped;
* reminding the authorities of their duties under the UN Convention against Torture which Turkey ratified in 1988. Articles 4 and 5 oblige States Parties to bring alleged torturers to justice, and Article 13 requires that victims, plaintiffs and witnesses in torture trials are protected.
Please send appeals to:
Minister of Justice
Professor Hikmet Sami Türk
Adalet Bakan,
Adalet Bakanl,
06659 Ankara, Turkey
Faxes: +90 312 418 5667 and +90 312 417 3954
Salutation: Dear Minister
Please send copies to the Turkish Embassy in your country.
1. Amnesty International is withholding N.C.S's full name as she is a minor.
