Human bones found near Lice
Human bones found near Lice
According to DIHA News Agency today, residents of the village of Fis (Ziyaret) in Lice found human bones while they were grazing their animals in an area that was used as a base by the notorious Bolu Commando Brigade during the 1990s.
The site has been empty for approximately 10 years, and civilian access is restricted.
Locals noted that the bones could indicate the presence of a mass grave and the villagers have agreed not to graze their animals in the area until an investigation is conducted.
The Bolu brigade is sadly famous for it was sent to different Kurdish areas in the 90's and there it had committed the most horrendous crimes. They were special teams trained to torture, abduct, kill in the most horrific way those who ended up in their hands. It is believed that the Bolu brigade is responsible for hundreds of village forced evictions. The soldiers were burning down villages and they have killed and forcibly disappeared hundreds of people in Kurdistan.
It is worth it to reproduce here what Human Rights Watch wrote when in 2003 on the eve of the second Iraq invasion by the coalition forces.
HRW was concerned among other things with the possibility of Turkey deploying some of its troops (we know that later things turned in a different way with Turkey not supporting - on the battlefield - the war in Iraq) to Iraq.
"Avoiding Deployment of Security Forces with Records of Abuse"
In light of the well-documented patterns of past abuse, no security force units with an established record of committing serious human violations should be deployed in Northern Iraq. The Bolu Commando Brigade, for example, was reportedly responsible for numerous violations of the laws of war, including village destruction, indiscriminate fire, and "disappearances." Relatives of victims of several extrajudicial executions and "disappearances" in Diyarbakýr province in 1993 named the Bolu Commando Brigade as the perpetrating unit. The European Court of Human Rights found Turkey guilty of violations of the right to life in two clusters of "disappearances" reportedly involving Bolu commandos. One case was the "disappearance" of eleven Kurdish inhabitants of the village of Alaca in Diyarbakýr province in 1993 (Akdeniz and others v Turkey). The second was the "disappearance" of three men from the village of Caðlayan in 1993. Relatives said that soldiers from the Bolu Commando Brigade took the men away (Orhan v Turkey). None of the perpetrators of these incidents have been brought to justice.
Given the strong evidence linking the Bolu Commando Brigade with grave abuses in circumstances similar to those that may arise in Northern Iraq, the Bolu Commando Brigade should not be sent for service there. The same should apply for other units or individuals linked to past gross violations of human rights or humanitarian law."
The site has been empty for approximately 10 years, and civilian access is restricted.
Locals noted that the bones could indicate the presence of a mass grave and the villagers have agreed not to graze their animals in the area until an investigation is conducted.
The Bolu brigade is sadly famous for it was sent to different Kurdish areas in the 90's and there it had committed the most horrendous crimes. They were special teams trained to torture, abduct, kill in the most horrific way those who ended up in their hands. It is believed that the Bolu brigade is responsible for hundreds of village forced evictions. The soldiers were burning down villages and they have killed and forcibly disappeared hundreds of people in Kurdistan.
It is worth it to reproduce here what Human Rights Watch wrote when in 2003 on the eve of the second Iraq invasion by the coalition forces.
HRW was concerned among other things with the possibility of Turkey deploying some of its troops (we know that later things turned in a different way with Turkey not supporting - on the battlefield - the war in Iraq) to Iraq.
"Avoiding Deployment of Security Forces with Records of Abuse"
In light of the well-documented patterns of past abuse, no security force units with an established record of committing serious human violations should be deployed in Northern Iraq. The Bolu Commando Brigade, for example, was reportedly responsible for numerous violations of the laws of war, including village destruction, indiscriminate fire, and "disappearances." Relatives of victims of several extrajudicial executions and "disappearances" in Diyarbakýr province in 1993 named the Bolu Commando Brigade as the perpetrating unit. The European Court of Human Rights found Turkey guilty of violations of the right to life in two clusters of "disappearances" reportedly involving Bolu commandos. One case was the "disappearance" of eleven Kurdish inhabitants of the village of Alaca in Diyarbakýr province in 1993 (Akdeniz and others v Turkey). The second was the "disappearance" of three men from the village of Caðlayan in 1993. Relatives said that soldiers from the Bolu Commando Brigade took the men away (Orhan v Turkey). None of the perpetrators of these incidents have been brought to justice.
Given the strong evidence linking the Bolu Commando Brigade with grave abuses in circumstances similar to those that may arise in Northern Iraq, the Bolu Commando Brigade should not be sent for service there. The same should apply for other units or individuals linked to past gross violations of human rights or humanitarian law."
