Sir, In his letter of September 14th, John Kilbracken stated that Amnesty International described Turkeys human rights record as worse than that of Iraq and Iran put together. In fact, Amnesty does not grade countries according to their record on human rights and therefore would not compare the level of abuses in one country to those in another.
However, there is no doubt that Amnesty has grave concerns regarding Turkey's human rights record, which is worsening. In 1995 there were more than 35 "disappearances", 15 reported deaths in custody as a result of torture and over 80 political killings. In the first 10 days of 1996 four prisoners were beaten to death in an Istanbul prison, a journalist was beaten to death following police detention and a 14 year old boy was shot dead in police custody.
In November 1993 the UN Committee Against Torture declared that "the existence of systematic torture in Turkey cannot be denied." In the years since that report was issued, nothing has been done in Turkey to safeguard detainees against torture and ill treatment in police custody 68 people have died in custody, apparently as a result of torture. There are many people in detention whom Amnesty considers to be prisoners of conscience, such as Akin Birdal, president of the Turkish Human Rights Association, arrested on September 2nd.
If Turkey's often repeated assertions that it wishes to end human rights violations are sincere, its new Government will make it a priority to take the necessary steps to make torture, "disappearance", extra judicial executions and other human rights abuses a terrible memory from the past. Yours, etc., Regional co-ordinator for Europe. Amnesty International, Irish Section, Sean MacBride House, 48 Fleet Street, Dublin 2.