ООН: В Турция 100 невъоръжени са били изгорени живи

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said Tuesday that he had received a succession of alarming reports about violations allegedly committed by Turkish military and security forces in south-east Turkey over the past few months, urging the Turkish authorities to give independent investigators, including UN staff, unimpeded access to the area to verify the veracity of such reports.
Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said from Geneva that “the High Commissioner for Human Rights, strongly condemns violence and other unlawful acts committed by groups allegedly affiliated with the PKK, in Cizre and in other areas, and we regret any loss of life as a result of terrorist acts wherever they have occurred."
“While Turkey has a duty to protect its population from acts of violence," Colville said, "it is essential that the authorities respect human rights at all times while undertaking security or counter-terrorism operations – and international law prohibiting torture, extrajudicial killings, disproportionate use of lethal force and arbitrary detention must be observed.”
The OHCHR spokesperson told media in Geneva that “we have received reports of unarmed civilians – including women and children – being deliberately shot by snipers, or by gunfire from tanks and other military vehicles." He continued saying that “there also appears to have been massive destruction of property and infrastructure – including buildings hit by mortar or shellfire, and damage inflicted on the contents of individual apartments and houses taken over by security forces in Cizre. There are also allegations of arbitrary arrests, and of torture and other forms of ill-treatment, as well as reports that in some situations ambulances and medical staff were prevented from reaching the wounded."
According to the OHCHR, the most disturbing of all are “the reports quoting witnesses and relatives in Cizre which suggest that more than 100 people were burned to death as they sheltered in three different basements that had been surrounded by security forces. All these allegations, including those levelled at the groups fighting against the security forces, are extremely serious and should be thoroughly investigated, but do not appear to have been so far," Colville said. “The Turkish government has not responded positively to requests by OHCHR and other parts of the United Nations to visit the region to collect information first-hand.”
More and more information has been emerging from a variety of credible sources about the actions of security forces in the town of Cizre during the extended curfew there from mid-December until early March, said the UN body. According to the OHCHR, there has been huge displacement triggered by the curfews and by subsequent fighting, shelling, killings and arrests in many places in the south-east.
The OHCHR remarked that “the Turkish government has not responded positively to requests by their office and other parts of the United Nations to visit the region to collect information first-hand.”
Colville emphasised that “in 2016, to have such a lack of information about what is happening in such a large and geographically accessible area is both extraordinary and deeply worrying. This black-out simply fuels suspicions about what has been going on."
The OHCHR called for a prompt investigation and prosecution of all those suspected of being involved in violations of the right to life, including extrajudicial killings and disproportional use of lethal force, and stressed that the judiciary should act independently from all other branches of the state, including the military and the executive.
The High Commissioner noted Turkey’s continued engagement with UN human rights bodies, including the recent visit of UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; the recent review of the country’s record by the UN Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families; and the ongoing review by the UN Committee against Torture which will issue its concluding observations on Friday May 13.
Source: UNTV CH