Turkey criticised for rise of torture cases

ELITSA VUCHEVA

26.06.2008 @ 09:26 CET

Both the EU and human rights groups on Wednesday (26 June) criticised EU candidate country Turkey for the rising number of reports of torture and maltreatment. Meanwhile, a survey has found that Turks are one of the four nations in the world that judge torture to be acceptable in some circumstances.

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"Cases of torture and ill-treatment are still being reported [in Turkey], especially during arrests outside detention centres and also in the context of demonstrations," said Ulrike Hauer, the deputy head of the EU's office in Ankara, speaking at a press conference in the Turkish capital on Wednesday, according to a report from AFP.

"This trend was further exacerbated by the passing in June 2007 of a new police law granting wide-ranging powers of stop and search," she added.

Leading Turkish human rights organisations backed the criticism and expressed similar concerns.

"There is no serious will on the ground," Emel Kurma from the Helsinki Citizens Assembly, a European peace and human rights group, was reported as saying.

"There is a state reflex to protect the country's image and a lack of courage to face the realities," the campaigner continued.

The number of applicants claiming to have suffered from torture and maltreatment in Turkey is estimated to have increased to 310 last year - up from 222 in 2006, according to the Human Rights Foundation, which runs EU-backed rehabilitation centres for victims.

In the first five months of 2008, 112 people claimed abuse at the hands of security forces.

Turkey has been an EU candidate country since 1999, and launched accession talks with the bloc in October 2005.

Improvement of its human rights record has been one of the conditions that would allow Ankara closer to its goal of EU membership.

Support for torture against terrorists

Meanwhile, a report released by World Public Opinion – a consortium of research centers studying public opinion on international issues – showed that Turkey is one of the four countries in the world, together with India, Nigeria and South Korea, where a majority of people judge torture to be acceptable in some cases.

Some 34 percent of Turks declared they accepted the use of torture on terrorists "to save innocent lives," while 18 percent said "torture should be generally allowed."

The support for using torture in some cases has more than doubled in the country compared to 2006 (when it stood at 24 percent), while the number of those clearly opposing the practice has dropped from 62 to 36 percent, according to the survey.

Substantial increases in support for torture, in particular against terrorists, also occurred in the United States (up from 36 to 44%) and in Egypt (up from 25 to 46%).

By contrast, support for the prohibition of all kinds of torture was highest in Spain (82 %), Great Britain (82%) and France (82%), followed by Mexico (73%), China (66%), the Palestinian territories (66%), Poland (62%), Indonesia (61%), and Ukraine (59%).

The publication of the survey came just days ahead of today's International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

On this occasion, leading human rights NGO Amnesty International will organise events worldwide and "lead attempts to roll back the assault on the prohibition of torture, in particular the arguments that it is justified or necessary to counter the threat of terrorism," it said in a press release.