3 July 2001

1. "Turkey using race laws against separatists", Turkey is using a law against discrimination to punish Kurdish and Islamic activists instead of applying it properly to deal with cases of racial and other discrimination, the Council of Europe charged Tuesday.

2. "Pathologists blast govt account of prison crackdown deaths", an official pathologists' report has blasted holes through the Turkish government's account of how 30 inmates died during a paramilitary crackdown on hunger striking prisoners last December, centre-left newspaper Radikal said on Monday.

3. "Still no press freedom says Press Council", the Press Council has published its report into activities and developments in the press sector in Turkey for the month of June, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.

4. "I.M.F. Board Meeting On $1.6 Billion Loan Installment Postponed", the International Monetary Fund postponed a board meeting set for Tuesday on approving a $1.6 billion loan installment for Turkey because the government has not fulfilled some loan conditions.

5. "Turkey, U.S. again clash over tech transfer", the United States and Turkey are again clashing over the transfer of U.S. technology for a major arms project by Ankara.

6. "Iraq's neighbours breathe a sigh of relief", the United Nations Security Council is split deeper than ever on the question of sanctions against Iraq. Russia refuses to countenance the US- and British-sponsored proposals, a stance which appeals to Iraq's neighbours.


1. - AFP - "Turkey using race laws against separatists":

STRASBOURG

Turkey is using a law against discrimination to punish Kurdish and Islamic activists instead of applying it properly to deal with cases of racial and other discrimination, the Council of Europe charged Tuesday.

A key article in the Turkish penal code "has so far been used in cases of incitement to separatism or fundamentalist views," a report by the European human rights watchdog body claimed. Article 312 covering incitement to hatred based on differences of class, race, religion, belief or political regime, did not appear to be used to penalise cases of "oral, written and other expressions, notably of anti-Semitic character, targeting minority groups in Turkey," the document said.The report follows a fact-finding mission to Turkey last November by the Council's European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). Turkey has a large minority of Kurds, and militant Kurdish leaders have been campaigning for self-rule in the southeast of the country. Islamic fundamentalism has meanwhile been on the increase in Turkey.

Last week the Council of Europe criticised Turkey's ban on the pro-Islamic Virtue Party, saying the move was against democratic principles. Turkey, which is hoping to gain European Union membership, must meet EU criteria on human rights and democracy before it can start accession talks. The report by ECRI on the anti-discrimination law also noted that there were currently no legal provisions in Turkey specifically prohibiting racial discrimination in employment."However, ECRI considers that in Turkey, as in most other European countries, there are groups whose members are vulnerable to discrimination on the labour market," it pointed out.


2. - AFP - "Pathologists blast govt account of prison crackdown deaths":

ANKARA

An official pathologists' report has blasted holes through the Turkish government's account of how 30 inmates died during a paramilitary crackdown on hunger striking prisoners last December, centre-left newspaper Radikal said on Monday.

Six of the prisoners, all women, were killed in an Istanbul jail by police using excessive quantities of tear and nerve gas, according to a report written in February by forensic pathologists, Radikal said. At the time the government said five of the women had set fire to themselves and the sixth had been suffocated by the smoke. They were among 12 inmates officially reported to have died in Bayrampasa prison, on the European side of Istanbul, during the four-day crackdown launched on December 19. But the pathologists' report demolishes the government account, saying "police used numerous tear and nerve gas grenades in an enclosed space measuring 30 square metres (yards), which apparently caused a fire and subjected the inhabitants of (women's) dormitory C1 to a very high threshold of chemicals and smoke".

Autopsies on the victims revealed traces of organic solvents including tolulene, xylene and methanol on their skin and clothing, the report said. Prisoners did not fire on security forces, as the government had claimed in justification of its heavy-handed assault, the report said, adding that the shots had been fired from outside the jail. Security forces stormed 20 prisons on December 19 in a bid to end a hunger strike begun in October by mainly left-wing inmates protesting at the introduction of new, high security jails. Some 30 prisoners and two paramilitary policemen died in the assault. The prison strike has placed Turkey's bleak human rights record in the international spotlight at a time when the country needs to make far-reaching democratic reforms in order to promote its bid for European Union membership. The December crackdown did not halt the protest, by over 400 inmates and sympathisers, which claimed its 26th victim on Friday.

The Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD) said 22-year-old Zehra Kulaksiz, whose uncle was in jail, died on the 223rd day of her hunger strike. She died in an Istanbul house where her 19-year-old sister Canan starved to death in April on her 137th day without food. The strike is in protest at new "F-type" prisons consisting of cells holding a maximum of three people, in contrast to existing jails composed of large dormitories designed for up to 60 people. Prisoners and human rights groups say confinement in small units would alienate inmates from fellow prisoners and leave them more vulnerable to torture by prison officials. Despite the mounting death toll and international pressure, the government has refused to back down on the introduction of the new prisons.Ankara maintains the packed dormitories are the main factor behind frequent riots and hostage-taking incidents in its unruly jails.

Since the December crackdown over 1,000 inmates have been transferred to F-type prisons despite a government pledge that the new jails would not become operational until a social consensus has been reached on their introduction. Ankara recently adopted a series of laws to improve jail conditions but the moves have been brushed aside by rights activists and civic groups as insufficient.


3. - Turkish Daily News - "Still no press freedom says Press Council":

Oppression against freedom of press continued in June

The Press Council has published its report into activities and developments in the press sector in Turkey for the month of June, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. The report noted the continuance of oppression against the press with such penalties being imposed by the courts as dissolving papers, banning advertising (thus depriving papers of substantial income) and the putting on trial of journalists for articles they had written.

The report stated that the Supreme Radio and Television Board (RTUK) Law that was vetoed by President Sezer did have some positive and important points to it but that the financial penalties against both the printed and electronic media were too severe. It noted the criticism levied at the amendment enabling TV and radio company owners to enter state tenders and play the stock exchange. The report criticized the ban on advertising now being used to penalize newspapers.

The report highlighted the penalties against several papers, TV stations and journalists for expressing opinions and on charges of alleged "slander" and insulting the Turkish Armed Forces, Parliament, the Justice Minister, the former Interior Minister and other prominent individuals. It also drew attention to cases that had been dropped or overturned for various reasons.


4. -AP - "I.M.F. Board Meeting On $1.6 Billion Loan Installment Postponed":

ANKARA

The International Monetary Fund postponed a board meeting set for Tuesday on approving a $1.6 billion loan installment for Turkey because the government has not fulfilled some loan conditions.

Horst Koehler, the IMF's managing director, announced the decision in a statement Monday, citing delays in implementing promised reforms in the banking system.

"Against a background of generally good implementation of the economic program of the Turkish government, including passage of a remarkable number of key legislative measures, a few prior actions that were to have been implemented by the time of the board review haven't yet been carried out," Koehler said.

Leaders of Turkey's strained three-party coalition government insisted Saturday that recent disputes within the government were a natural part of politics and vowed to work together to overcome a deep economic crisis.

The IMF and its main Western shareholders are concerned that the economic recovery program could founder amid government bickering.


5. - Middle East Newsline - "Turkey, U.S. again clash over tech transfer":

ANKARA

The United States and Turkey are again clashing over the transfer of U.S. technology for a major arms project by Ankara.

The dispute involves Washington's refusal to transfer a key system required for a proposed coproduction project of the AH-Z1 King Cobra helicopter.

Turkish officials said the Pentagon has denied a request by Ankara for transfer of technology that would allow Turkish industry to produce a mission computer for the King Cobra. The officials said the Pentagon is prepared to approve some of the technology and data -- but not enough to allow Turkish companies to develop the system.

Washington's refusal has angered the Turkish military and defense sources said this could delay the King Cobra coproduction project. Bell Textron has been chosen as the frontrunner of what had been a $4.5 billion program, now believed to have been reduced to $1.5 billion.

Instead, the Pentagon has called on Ankara to allow a U.S. contractor to provide the mission computer, with minor input from Turkish companies. The U.S. appeal is said to violate Ankara's demand that it receive the transfer of technology for major subsystems.


6. - Frankfurter Rundschau - "Iraq's neighbours breathe a sigh of relief":

Sanctions split UN Security Council

AMMAN / by Andrea Nuesse

The United Nations Security Council is split deeper than ever on the question of sanctions against Iraq. Russia refuses to countenance the US- and British-sponsored proposals, a stance which appeals to Iraq's neighbours. On June 4, Iraq stopped oil exports in protest at the mere one-month extension of the "oil-for-food" programme.

But at the border crossing of Karameh between Jordan and Iraq, the tankers keep rolling, transporting five million tons of crude oil every year. Half of the valuable supplies are given free to Jordan, the other half is sold at prices far below world-market levels.

The trade is a boon to the Jordanian economy, which in turn pleases the regime in Baghdad. The revenue from this business, as well as the unsanctioned exports to Turkey and Syria, flow directly into their coffers, thus bypassing trustee accounts under UN-control.

London is keen to change all that. Its draft of a new UN resolution, to come into effect on July 4, envisages Iraq's neighbours continuing to draw their oil from Baghdad. The difference is that they should pay the proceeds into binational trustee accounts to which Iraq has no direct access. The US and Britain hope that the measure will drastically curtail Baghdad's earnings and thus lead to Saddam Hussein's destabilisation.

Russia, however, has already publicly refused to back the draft.

Moscow's UN ambassador, Sergei Lavrov, called the proposal "inacceptable" and said it would only further worsen the Iraqi people's already disastrous situation.

Russia's Nyet has added to doubts whether the Security Council can reach common ground on a new Iraq resolution in the next days. While the council dithers, Jordan, Syria and Turkey can all breathe a sigh of relief. Baghdad had threatened to pull the plug on all oil supplies if they supported the resolution. The economies of Saddam's neighbours have already suffered terribly from the Iraq embargo and are unwilling to accept further financial losses - not least because their populations are firmly behind the Iraqi people and show little comprehension for the continuing sanctions.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit of Turkey already made it clear to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Ankara that he would put his weight behind the resumption of a dialogue between Baghdad and the United Nations instead of relying on new sanctions. Turkey's own figures suggest that it has suffered losses of 35 million dollars as a result of the ten-year sanction regime.

Regardless: trade at the two border checkpoints between northern Iraq and Turkey is flourishing. A quarter of Turkey's diesel needs is apparently supplied through these routes. Jordan has made it clear that it will not be able to implement the resolution: without the cheap fuel and the trade with Iraq, says the government in Amman, the country would record an annual shortfall of one billion dollars.

Syria simply sells the cheap oil on; its oil exports have recently risen by precisely the same amount that is exported from Iraq. A coincidence, no doubt.

In an effort to calm Iraq's neighbours, compensation plans are now being drawn up - although they can never balance the losses. There are several lures, though: Jordan is expecting that a free-trade agreement with the US will be ratified by Congress, and Syria has redoubled its effort to be admitted to the Security Council as non-standing member.

Turkey, as a NATO partner and would-be EU entrant, meanwhile, has special duties. Thanks to the Russians, these countries - who are not in the Security Council but must bear the main burden of the new resolution - have been given a reprieve.