How did they died?
How did they died?
Lawyers of families of 14 guerillas, who were exhumed from the mass grave in Çemiþgezek district of Dersim, demanded to establish whether the War Rules on the Geneva Convention were violated in the event. Eyewitnesses said that the bodies of guerillas were not recognizable.
Among the 24 PKK members who lost their lives in a clash on April 11, 1997 in Dersim, the dismembered bodies of 14 were found in three separate sites. The bodies without head, arm or legs were sent to the Istanbul Forensic Medicine for the determination of identities. Giving information about the subject, families’ lawyer Helin Reyhan Kuloðlu, IHD Dersim Representative Barýþ Yýldýrým and Dersim Bar Association President Fatma Kalsen stated that the demand of families, for the determination of how their children died, which weapons were used and whether torture was applied or not, was also recorded on the Forensic Medicine Institute report as well.
Remarking that a savagery was applied on the bodies which were found in pieces in separate sides, lawyer Kuloðlu said that the Prosecution Office insisted on excavating the sites with a digger for the spoliation of evidences. The archaeological excavation upon the insistence of lawyers and Forensic Medicine experts has revealed many facts, said Kuloðlu and noted that the savagery applied on bodies was also witnessed by expert groups during the excavation. We are now waiting the report results to initiate legal proceedings, added Kuloðlu.
An eyewitness Hüseyin Bakýray, who took the body of his PKK member niece Nuray Bakýray from the field beside the gendarmerie post in that period, told the day of event as follows;
“Intelligence members took us to Çemiþgezek Gendarmerie Headquarters early in the morning where they showed us the photos of the guerillas buried there. We were afterwards taken to the area they were buried in. The bodies had been covered with plastic bags before being buried. With another family brought to the area in the same way, we took the bodies of our relatives out of the grave and we weren’t allowed to leave the place before late at night. While we were exhuming the bodies, they were using a dirty foul language and telling us how they were killed with every moment. Then, we took Nuray’s body to our village. All the other bodies were had been dismembered.”
Another eyewitness Cemal Kurtulmaz, who came to Çemiþgezek to take the body of a guerilla buried in the mass grave there, told that 18 bodies had been buried naked in a site 100 meters close to the post.
Among the 24 PKK members who lost their lives in a clash on April 11, 1997 in Dersim, the dismembered bodies of 14 were found in three separate sites. The bodies without head, arm or legs were sent to the Istanbul Forensic Medicine for the determination of identities. Giving information about the subject, families’ lawyer Helin Reyhan Kuloðlu, IHD Dersim Representative Barýþ Yýldýrým and Dersim Bar Association President Fatma Kalsen stated that the demand of families, for the determination of how their children died, which weapons were used and whether torture was applied or not, was also recorded on the Forensic Medicine Institute report as well.
Remarking that a savagery was applied on the bodies which were found in pieces in separate sides, lawyer Kuloðlu said that the Prosecution Office insisted on excavating the sites with a digger for the spoliation of evidences. The archaeological excavation upon the insistence of lawyers and Forensic Medicine experts has revealed many facts, said Kuloðlu and noted that the savagery applied on bodies was also witnessed by expert groups during the excavation. We are now waiting the report results to initiate legal proceedings, added Kuloðlu.
An eyewitness Hüseyin Bakýray, who took the body of his PKK member niece Nuray Bakýray from the field beside the gendarmerie post in that period, told the day of event as follows;
“Intelligence members took us to Çemiþgezek Gendarmerie Headquarters early in the morning where they showed us the photos of the guerillas buried there. We were afterwards taken to the area they were buried in. The bodies had been covered with plastic bags before being buried. With another family brought to the area in the same way, we took the bodies of our relatives out of the grave and we weren’t allowed to leave the place before late at night. While we were exhuming the bodies, they were using a dirty foul language and telling us how they were killed with every moment. Then, we took Nuray’s body to our village. All the other bodies were had been dismembered.”
Another eyewitness Cemal Kurtulmaz, who came to Çemiþgezek to take the body of a guerilla buried in the mass grave there, told that 18 bodies had been buried naked in a site 100 meters close to the post.
