[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 55 (Wednesday, April 21, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E725]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CHILDREN'S DAY IN TURKEY

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 21, 1999

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, later this week the Republic of 
Turkey will celebrate ``Children's Day'' as has been the custom every 
April 23rd since the early 1920s. Such festive occasions are important 
reminders of the wonderful blessing that children are to family and 
society alike. Regrettably, the joy of this celebration will not be 
shared by all children in Turkey. Recently, I chaired a hearing of the 
Helsinki Commission that reviewed human rights practices in Turkey, an 
original signatory to the 1975 Helsinki Final Act. The disturbing 
testimony presented at that hearing underscored the vulnerability of 
children.
  Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, 
Harold Koh, cited the case of two-year-old Azat Tokmak to illustrate 
how terrible and dehumanizing the practice of torture is for everyone 
involved, including children. Azat was tortured, according to Mr. Koh, 
in an effort to secure a confession from her mother. He testified: ``In 
April [1998] the Istanbul Chamber of Doctors certified that Azat showed 
physical and psychological signs of torture after detention at an 
Istanbul branch of the anti-terror police. Azat's mother, Fatma Tokmak, 
was detained in December 1996 on suspicion of membership in the 
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Azat was burned with cigarettes and 
kicked in an effect to make her mother confess.'' Mr. Speaker, we are 
talking about a two-year-old child--a baby--being tortured by police.
  At the same March 18th hearing, Stephen Rickard, Director of the 
Washington Office of Amnesty International USA, observed, ``There is 
something Orwellian about calling units that torture and beat children 
and sexually assault their victims ``anti-terror'' police.'' Mr. 
Rickard displayed a photograph of Done Talun, a twelve-year-old girl 
from a poor neighborhood in Ankara, to give a human face to the problem 
of torture in Turkey. ``For five days, she was beaten and tortured 
while her frantic family asked for information about her whereabouts 
and condition,'' Rickard said. Done was accused of stealing some bread. 
Her torture reportedly occurred at the Ankara Police Headquarters. ``Is 
this young girl's case unique? Unfortunately, it is not,'' he 
concluded. Mr. Rickard presented the Commission with a recent AI 
report: ``Gross Violations in the Name of Fighting Terror: The Human 
Rights Record Of Turkey's `Anti-Terror' Police Units.'' The report 
includes a section on the torture of children.
  Mr. Douglas A. Johnson, Executive Director of the Center for Victims 
of Torture, testified that there are thirty-seven different forms of 
torture practiced in Turkey today. Addressing the torture of children, 
Johnson observed, ``twenty percent of our clients over the years were 
tortured when they were children, and usually that was to use them as a 
weapon against their parents,'' similar to the case of two-year-old 
Azat Tokmak.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge the Clinton Administration to press the 
Government of Turkey to eliminate the climate of impunity that has 
allowed children like Azat and Done to be subjected to such gross abuse 
at the hands of the police. Then, and only then, will children such as 
these--``the least of these''--be able to fully partake in the joy of 
this special Children's Day set aside to celebrate their lives and 
those of all children in Turkey.

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