On Saturday, 29 September, a minibus in Beytüssebab, in the south-eastern province of Sirnak, was shot at.

Twelve people, seven of them village guards, were killed. Two men, one of them severely injured, were found alive.

Conflicting accusations

The Sirnak Governor's office said that those killed had worked to bring water to a nearby village and were killed by PKK militants as they were returning to their village at around 5pm.

The "Özgür Gündem" newspaper, which has been banned from publishing, claimed on its website that the PKK has announced that the attack was organised by the Turkish Armed Forces and the Gendarmerie Intelligence Unit (JITEM).

The article draws attention to the killing of 11 village guards in a minibus in another district of Sirnak (Güclükonak) in 1996 and claims that that attack was also organised by JITEM.

IHD condemns attack

The Human Rights Association (IHD) has strongly condemned the attack, saying: "Just as we oppose the extrajudicial killings, which are violations of the right to live, committed by state organs, we also condemn the killings committed by organisations who use arms as a means for their political activities. We demand that those responsible are identified and tried."

Parliamentary investigation

Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission has formed a committee to investigate the murders. According to the "Radikal" newspaper, this committee first only included MPs from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). After protests, one MP each from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) and the Republican People's Party (CHP) was included.

Motion by DTP MP Kaplan

Hasip Kaplan, DTP MP for Sirnak, has handed Besir Atalay, Minister of the Interior, a motion, in which he asks the following questions:

• Is there any evidence on which the official announcement is made? What is the evidence in the murders in Besagac village in the Beytüssebap district, the perpetrators of which are not known yet, on which officials have made announcements to the public?
• Seeing as the perpetrators of a similar attack in the Güclükonak district in 1994 were later found to be underground gangs, do officials not have to be more careful?
• Some people say that around 25 plain-clothes people were driving around in two white minibuses in the area and that they had flasks with them and were probably officials. Are the security forces investigating the area?
• Are the rumours true that two of the people shooting at our citizens at around 5 pm were masked?
• The area is difficult to access and also difficult to leave. After hearing of the event, what did security forces do?
• Considering the fact that the provinces of Hakkari, Sirnak and Siirt have been declared "security zones" and that around a hundred thousand soldiers are in the region, with tens of thousands of soldiers on operation in the area of the murders, why were there no security precautions which would have protected the road and the lives of our dead citizens?
• Are there plans to work on putting an end to putting our civilian citizen's security out to tender, to ending the village guard system, and to providing social rights and securities? (TK/AG)