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25 April 1995
Doc. 7295
OPINION on Turkey's military intervention in northern Iraq and on Turkey's respect of commitments concerning constitutional and legislative reforms 1
(Rapporteur: Mr CUCÓ, Spain, Socialist Group)
1. The purpose of this opinion is to draw the attention of the Assembly to the humanitarian aspects of the Turkish military intervention in northern Iraq, especially the plight of the some 15 000 Turkish Kurd refugees who have fled the violent conflict in south-eastern Turkey over the last eighteen months. The majority of these have been displaced again as a result of the Turkish operation.
2. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), an appreciable movement of Turkish Kurds across the international border into North Iraq began in September 1993 and gradually intensified into a massive exodus at the beginning of 1994. These were mainly whole families fleeing the violent conflict between Turkish security forces and the the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), which is reported to have entailed the destruction of several hundred villages in south-eastern Turkey and the large-scale displacement of the Turkish Kurd civilian population. Most of these are internally displaced. For example, the population of Diyarbakir has risen from 400 000 to 1,5 million in three years.
3. By the beginning of summer 1994 some 9 000 Turkish Kurds had crossed the border into North Iraq (the "safe haven" set up by the allied powers with the co-operation of the Turkish authorities following the Gulf war in 1991) seeking protection. UNHCR's response was to organise humanitarian assistance and temporary shelter for these people and to relocate as many of them as possible to safe sites away from the Turkish frontier. This was for their protection (at least one refugee, a young woman, was killed during a Turkish bombing raid in Baheri, near Zakho, in July 1994) and to ensure that the refugee settlements could not be perceived as launching-pads for armed incursions into Turkey by the PKK. Nevertheless, many of those who had fled sought to remain as close to the Turkish frontier as possible.
4. In co-operation with the Kurdish authorities in North Iraq and humanitarian agencies such as Shelter International, the World Food Programme, Unicef, and the World Health Organisation, UNHCR established two civil refugee camps ("A" and "B") at Atroush, about sixty kilometres east of Dohuk and 160 kilometres from the border. During the final months of 1994, UNHCR managed to relocate some 8 600 Turkish Kurd refugees to these camps.
5. Nevertheless, when Turkey launched its invasion of northern Iraq on 20 March 1995, some 4 500 Kurdish refugees from Turkey, mostly women and children, were living in the town of Zakho and surrounding villages close to the border. Reports spoke of Turkish forces conducting house-to-house searches and hundreds of arrests. Turkish Kurds were reportedly seized in the Zakho area and taken across the border into Turkey. If these were unarmed civilian refugees, this would be a clear violation of international humanitarian law. And indeed one may well ask how the Turkish forces can distinguish between armed PKK activists and civilian refugees. In the heat of the moment, Turkish civilian refugees could very easily be mistaken for PKK fighters. Hence the need for the utmost restraint, and for the close monitoring of assurances by the Turkish Government that the refugees will come to no harm. In order to do so, however, representatives of UNHCR, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other humanitarian organisations, as well as the press, must be allowed unrestricted access to the area, in particular north of Zakho and in the more remote areas.
6. In a well-publicised operation carried out between 26 and 30 March 1995, UNHCR transported over 2 500 Turkish Kurd registered refugees under escort from Zakho to the Atroush camps. Others managed to make their own way there. By 4 April 1995, according to UNHCR, the Atroush camps contained some 13 000 Turkish Kurd refugees. However, the camp populations were extremely tense as a result of rumours that the Turkish forces were about to launch an attack, following allegations in the Turkish media and elsewhere that PKK fighters were hiding out in the camps. UNHCR considered these allegations to be totally unwarranted and to constitute a threat to the safety of the refugees. According to UNHCR, "people involved in activities incompatible with refugee status will not be allowed in the Atroush camps, which UNHCR is determined have always been and will remain civilian refugee camps".
7. On 18 April 1995, UNHCR established that there were 13 054 refugees in the two camps, all registered with UNHCR and the World Food Programme. Another
1 232 registered refugees were still outside the camps, living in the towns of Zakho and Dohuk and various villages. 14 families (53 individuals) not registered before the Turkish military operation began were to be assessed before being allowed to enter the camps.
8. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), two of its delegates based in Dohuk have carried out four surveys (on 6, 7, 10, and 17 April 1995) in the areas controlled by the Turkish army, with the consent of the Turkish authorities, permission having at first been refused. According to the delegates' initial reports, some of the civilian population living in the area of military operations have left their villages and abandoned a large number of fields under cultivation. Others appear to have been cut off in mountain villages since the beginning of the Turkish military operation, with no access to supplies or medical care. Several arrests of civilians were reported to the delegates, who immediately asked the Turkish authorities in Zakho for clarification.
9. There is a difference of opinion between ICRC and the Turkish authorities as to the law applicable to the area of northern Iraq under Turkish army control. The ICRC considers the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 on the protection of civilian persons in time of war to be applicable in its entirety. It also holds that Article 3 common to all four Geneva Conventions is applicable, though solely to Turkish Kurd combatants, and that the provisions of international humanitarian law must be applied. However, the Turkish authorities contest the applicability to their military operation in northern Iraq of the Fourth Geneva Convention (on the "protection of civilian persons in time of war") and Article 3 common to the Conventions.2
10. ICRC's efforts have been directed towards a pragmatic approach, whose operational objectives are:
- to visit all persons arrested and detained, particularly those being held by the Turkish authorities;
- to make an independent on-the-spot analysis of the situation, in humanitarian terms, of the civilian population in the area controlled by the Turkish army;
- to assess on the spot the medical and sanitary needs of the wounded and sick, whether civilians or combatants and regardless of their origin.
11. In conclusion, the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography fully supports the report of the Political Affairs Committee, draws the Assembly's attention to the humanitarian aspects of the Turkish military operation, and calls on the Turkish authorities to refrain from arbitrary aggression against innocent civilians, to fully respect international humanitarian law and to allow unrestricted access to the humanitarian organisations working to relieve the suffering of the sick and wounded and the plight of the civilian population, particularly the refugees.
12. The committee expresses its great appreciation for the work carried out by the humanitarian organisations to protect the great number of innocent civilian victims of the Turkish military operation in northern Iraq. The committee also asks the governments of the Council of Europe member states to step up their support for the humanitarian organisations working in northern Iraq to relieve the plight of the civilian population, in particular the refugees and displaced persons.
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Reporting committee: Political Affairs Committee (Doc. 7290).
Committee for an opinion: Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography.
Reference to committee: Doc. 7276, reference No. 2006 of 24 April 1995 - Urgent debate decided by the Assembly on 24 April 1995.
Draft opinion: approved by the committee on 25 April 1995.
Secretaries to the committee: MM. Newman and Sich.
2 2 Article 3: "In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each Party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:
(1) Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.
To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:
(a) violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;
(b) taking of hostages;
(c) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;
(d) the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.
(2) The wounded and sick shall be collected and care for.
An impartial humanitarian body, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, may offer its services to the Parties to the conflict.
The Parties to the conflict should further endeavour to bring into force, by means of special agreements, all or part of the other provisions of the present Convention.
The application of the preceding provisions shall not affect the legal status of the Parties to the conflict."