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Turkish police seek to silence doctors reporting torture
Doctors have been detained and in some cases beaten for treating torture victims.
ANKARA, Turkey -- Gynecologist Zeki Uzun says police arrested him, then beat him for three days and deprived him of sleep after he treated a suspected Kurdish rebel.
Police sued psychiatrist Ozge Yenier Duman on charges of malpractice after she insisted that policemen leave her office while she listened to a prisoner she suspected might have been tortured.
The government fired forensic expert Sebnem Korur Fincanci after she wrote in a report that police tortured a detainee to death, and she is under attack again over a similar case.
Turkey's leaders have vowed to crack down on torture, but doctors say police still intimidate them into not reporting torture, making it virtually impossible to gather evidence needed to prosecute officers for abuse.
Doctors have also been detained, and in some cases beaten, for treating victims of torture or refusing to provide information on individuals they treat.
Despite a recent decree giving doctors the right to ask police officers to leave during medical examinations of detainees, most police insist on staying and watching.
Officers argue they need to be present to protect doctors and to prevent detainees from escaping. But the Turkish Physicians Association says the police presence is intimidation meant to ensure abuses are not reported.
Enraged officers have ripped up medical reports, asking doctors to write less incriminating ones, or even threatened them with death, said Fincanci, a professor of forensic science.
In response to doctor's complaints, the government enacted legislation in 1999 imposing jail sentences both for physicians who write false reports to hide torture and for officials who force doctors to write such reports.
Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit contends the government is working to curb torture.
``Torture complaints have decreased,'' he said. ``I believe that they will disappear totally within a short time.''
Physicians, however, say most of their colleagues are too scared to report abuses, and there is little evidence the government campaign is being taken seriously by police officers.
Doctors ``report the marks, but will not conclude that they were caused by torture,'' said Fincanci, one of only 16 professors of forensic science in Turkey.
A parliamentary commission reported last year on widespread incidents of torture, providing pictures of rooms soundproofed with black leather, apparently to muffle the screams of victims.
Sema Piskinsut, a former physician who headed the commission, was then asked to step down and was replaced by a right-wing legislator from a party popular with police.
The Turkish Human Rights Foundation, which runs five rehabilitation centers for torture victims, says police have turned to methods like sleep deprivation or humiliation, which don't leave physical scars.
``There are no outward signs, but the psychological effect is tremendous,'' Dr. Sukran Irencin said.
Uzun, the gynecologist who works for a center that treats torture victims, was acquitted last year of charges of aiding Kurdish rebels, a charge that could have put him in jail for three years. Uzun says he was beaten in police custody, a claim officials have denied.
A court in November acquitted psychiatrist Duman of charges of malpractice, but three other doctors are still on trial for insisting police leave their offices during examinations of detainees. The doctors each face one-year prison terms if convicted.
Istanbul Gov. Erol Cakir is seeking Fincanci's dismissal from the state-run Forensic Medicine Institute for writing a report saying union activist Suleyman Yeter was beaten to death by police.
Yeter died two days after he was arrested.
Cakir contends Fincanci should be dismissed because she is biased against police.
Fincanci, who once worked in Bosnia for the United Nations International War Crimes Court, was dismissed previously, in 1996, after writing a report saying a student who died in police custody was tortured to death.
An initial report -- based on an autopsy conducted by a veterinarian -- blamed his death on respiratory problems.
Fincanci was reinstated in 1998.
``The authorities just do not recognize ethics associated with our profession,'' said Dr. Umit Erkol, who heads an Ankara-based physicians group.
``They do not recognize that relations between patient and doctor
are confidential, that everyone has the right to be treated, even
the enemy in times of war.''
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