On 24 March 2006, fourteen Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) guerrillas were killed in the mountains outside Diyarbakır by the Turkish army. Thousands of people attended the funerals. Although they passed peacefully, some funeral goers threw stones and rocks when passing a police station. The police responded with tear gas, water cannons, batons and firearms, apparently indiscriminately. The security thereafter deteriorated and Special Forces were deployed. Violence rapidly spread to other Kurdish cities; many were killed, including children, and hundreds more were injured. Three people were killed when a bomb was thrown at a bus in Istanbul in protest at the violence in the south-east. Hundreds of people were detained, many of them illegally, including many children, facing a real risk of torture or inhuman treatment.

KHRP mission members, Michael Ivers and Brenda Campbell, visited the region between 19 and 24 April in order to monitor and document the situation on the ground. They spoke with witnesses of the violence and local human rights organisations. This report documents the mission’s findings.

Publication available for 10 GBP from khrp@khrp.org or +44 (0) 207 405 3835 – ISBN 1905592027, or by downloading below: