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The 5th International Conference Against Disappearances, was gathered in
Diyarbakýr in between May 16th and 20th, under the main title War and
Occupation: Human Rights Violations, Torture and Disappearances. 300
delegates from the countries; Argentina, Chile, Canada, India, Sri Lanka,
Spain, France, Bulgaria, Germany, England, Palestine, Switzerland, Holland,
Colombia, Greece, Finland, South Korea, Turkey and Northern Kurdistan
attended the Conference.
We believe that gathering this conference in Diyarbakýr, an opening gate to
the Middle East, where war and occupation creates great human rights
violations and a city located in the center of Kurdish geography where the
people have been suffering disappearances/deaths under arrest, extra
judicial executions, evacuated/burnt villages, mass graves, torture are
experienced intensively, has a great meaning and importance.
Besides discussions and sessions, we also realized sit-down action, planting
trees for the memory of the disappeared, film shows and music performances
for disappearances, in the course of the Conference.
More than fifty relatives of disappeared people, sharing their pain with
other delegates, pointed the newly found mass graves in Diyarbakýr-Kulp,
Mardin-Savur and Bitlis-Tatvan and demanded that all mass graves should be
uncovered, fate of their relatives should be explained, and the responsibles
of the disappearances should be tried. The cry of the mothers from the
Conference desk; at least we want a gravestone of our sons for crying and
praying, marked the conference.
The delegates, coming from many different countries of the world, shared
their struggle experiences and the realities of their own countries, and
stressed that even tough it is experienced in different languages and
different geographies; disappearances are rooted from the same imperialist
system. They called attention to the need of joining the struggles for
disappearances in the international level.
Our conference called for raising the struggle for democracy and fraternity
and the international solidarity against militarist policies arising in
Turkey and especially in the Kurdish province in recent times, against the
fact that the Turkish state replies the just, honored and democratic peace
demand of the Kurdish people with policies of blood and tear.
Our conference raised the demand of the immediate end of the heavy isolation
conditions of Abdullah Ocalan in Imrali Prison (where he was put after being
kidnapped by a CIA plane, through an international conspiracy) and of the
isolation in the F-type prisons which continue since the last six years, and
the realisation of humanitarian life conditions in these prisons.
We also demanded that the new proposal for the change of the Anti-Terror
Law which is being held in the Turkish Parliament to be immediately
withdrawn, since this law will bring the usurpation of the democratic
rights, the legalization of the mass graves and will prepare the basis for
new mass graves.
Our conference called for support to the resistances of Middle Eastern
people, Iraqi, Palestinian, Kurdish people coming in the first place,
against imperialism, Zionism, occupation and colonialism and for enhancement
of the common struggles of the peoples. This conference convicted the
torture brutality in the Abu Gharaib and Guantanamo Prisons, many political
disappearances in Iraq, attacks to Palestinian captives such as the
kidnapping of Ahmad Saadad from Jericho Prison, and demanded the immediate
end of these attacks.
Our conference drew attention that the USA, with the support of the European
states, is developing a new form of crime against humanity by kidnapping
people by CIA planes and putting them in secret prisons.
Our conference supports the tireless struggle of the Argentinian people and
of the Plaza De Mayo mothers, demanded that the responsibles of
disappearances should be punished and that more than 400 young people who
were born in concentration camps and kidnapped from their families should be
given back their identity.
In Chile, we support; the popular struggle for the punishment of Pinochet,
the primary responsible for the disappearances in Chile, and the struggle of
the Mapuche people; we demand the release of the captive political leaders
of the Mapuche people.
In Colombia, we condemn the paramilitarian style neofascist regime, for
state terrorism and dirty war applied on the revolutionary opposition, union
and political leaders, with the support of North American imperialism and
its' multinational corporations (such as Coca-Cola).
Our conference, also discussed the neoliberal attack programme of
imperialism and its' results; and stated that, there is a direct relation
between militarist violence and unemployment, poverty, starvation,
exploitation policies.
In our conference, these suggestions were declared in the discussions about
the perspective, means and methods of struggle against disappearance
policies:
- forming a communication network for raising international
solidarity in the struggle against disappearances, for preventing the
disappearances, and organizing simultaneous reactions in different
countries,
- The number of known disappearances was 839 in Turkey. However,
after our examination in the process of our conference, this number raised
to 1228. This situation indicates once more that it is a necessity to form a
social memory, to strengthen the communication and co-ordination between
associations working for human rights and disappearances. In this frame,
forming different commissions for revealing the realities and providing
justice,
- forming a commission for finding out all mass graves and exposing
the realities in all its' dimensions and for struggling on this issue,
- following the trials in which the polices who killed the
twelve-year old boy Ugur Kaymaz and his father in Mardin-Kiziltepe and the
trial of the state officials who made a bomb attack targeting the civilian
people in Semdinli; and organizing the mass struggle and mass pressure for
preventing these kind of attacks,
- Providing capacities for the necessary rehabilitation and support
for the traumas that the relatives of the disappeared live,
- organizing the struggle for finding and judging the responsibles
of disappearances/deaths in police custody, extra judicial executions and
mass graves, and for removing the legal barriers that prevent their
judgement,
- re-organizing the actions of the relatives of the disappeared was
proposed.
Our conference ended with enthusiastic embraces of international delegates
and relatives of disappeared from Turkey and with the calls of Never
Again!
20th of May, 2006 Diyarbakýr
International Committe Against Disappearances (ICAD)
Association of Assistance and Solidarity with the Relatives of the
Disappeared (YAKAY-DER)