TURKEY: KURDS SLAM PKK "REINTEGRATION" BILL AS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 ANKARA 004499 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/17/2013 TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM TU SUBJECT: TURKEY: KURDS SLAM PKK "REINTEGRATION" BILL AS SAME OLD, SAME OLD REF: A. ANKARA 3974 ¶B. ANKARA 4355 (U) Classified by DCM Robert Deutsch; reasons 1.5(b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: Parliament is reviewing a "reintegration" law that would offer reduced prison sentences to combatants belonging to the PKK/KADEK and other terrorist organizations who agree to lay down their weapons and provide information to authorities. The Chairman of DEHAP (Sinn Fein to the PKK/KADEK),Kurdish/human rights organizations, and others criticize the draft law as inadequate, and call instead for a sweeping "political amnesty." An M.P. from the ruling AK party, and DEHAP contacts, told us the military and its bureaucratic allies rejected arguments in favor of a broader law with fewer conditions. An Interior Ministry contact argued that a general amnesty would allow thousands of criminals to go unpunished, causing social unrest -- a view echoed by a member of the opposition, Establishment CHP. End Summary. -------------- Parliament Reviewing "Reintegration" Law -------------- ¶2. (U) The parliamentary Internal Affairs Committee July 16 approved the GOT's draft "Reintegration Into Society" law, aimed at encouraging members of the PKK/KADEK and other terrorist organizations to lay down their weapons. The GOT expects the full Parliament to adopt the law before going into recess in August. Key elements of the draft include: -- Surrender: Anyone guilty of terrorist crimes (i.e. involvement in armed activities) can take advantage of the law if they surrender and provide information about the "structure and activities" of their organizations. Crimes normally carrying life sentences will be punished by 7-9 years imprisonment, depending on the nature of the crimes. For crimes carrying lesser punishments, sentences will be reduced by three-fourths. -- Capture: If captured, militants guilty of terrorist crimes can benefit from the law if they provide information about their organization. If they provide information prior to being convicted, life sentences will be reduced to 10-12 years imprisonment, and lesser sentences will be reduced by two-thirds. If they provide information only after being convicted, life sentences will be reduced to 15-18 years imprisonment, and lesser sentences will be reduced by half. -- Aid and Shelter: Those guilty of providing shelter and non-weapons supplies to terrorist organizations will not/not be punished. Those guilty of providing arms and ammunition will be subject to the terms listed above. -- Verification: The Interior Ministry will verify the validity of the information provided. Anyone providing false information will be sentenced to an additional prison term of at least five years and will not benefit from the law. -- Exclusions: Members of a terrorist organization's "highest administrative unit" are excluded from the benefits of the law. In addition, anyone who benefited from previous "repentance" laws and later committed new terrorist crimes will be excluded. -------------- Kurdish Groups Call for General Amnesty -------------- ¶3. (C) The Kurdish/human rights community has universally panned the reintegration law as inadequate. Several Kurdish/human rights organizations -- including: the Peace Mothers, comprising mothers of both PKK fighters and Turkish soldiers; an ad hoc group of 340 members of civil society organizations across the southeast; leaders of the pro-Kurdish DEHAP party; and two organizations representing PKK/KADEK prisoners -- have sought meetings with us over the past couple of weeks to criticize the law (as reported in the press) and call on the U.S. to press for a broader form of amnesty. Making identical arguments, members of these organizations argued for a "general political amnesty" that would: 1) allow members of the PKK/KADEK and other terrorist organizations to lay down their weapons and re-enter society without doing time in prison or providing information about their organizations, and 2) release all "political" prisoners, i.e. anyone held on charges of membership in an illegal organization, or on speech crimes (which often amount to verbal support for terrorist organizations). -------------- HRA: Despite Flaws, Law Could Be Implemented -------------- ¶4. (C) Husnu Ondul, Human Rights Association chairman, told us July 14 that the reintegration law is not significantly different from the seven "repentance" laws issued between 1985 and 2000, which persuaded a total of only 834 PKK members to surrender. Though the word "repentance" has been left out, this law, like previous ones, requires PKK/KADEK fighters to provide information about the organization. The only improvement over past laws, Ondul said, is a greater reduction in sentences. Still, Ondul believes the law can be made to work if the "State" (the military and bureaucracy) and PKK/KADEK ignore the text and commit to a solution. Ondul argued that the State should agree to interview and then quickly release surrendering militants, while PKK/KADEK, in turn, should call on its members to surrender in groups of 500-1,000. However, he said, for this to happen the two sides will have to negotiate, either directly or through the U.S. He said that would mean talking with jailed PKK leader Ocalan. "To surrender as an organization is a big decision," Ondul said. "Ocalan cannot make this decision by himself, but it cannot be made without him." -------------- MOI: Law Reflects Balanced Approach -------------- ¶5. (C) However, Nezih Dogan, Interior Ministry Secretary General, defended the law as a sound effort to resolve a complex problem. The GOT, he told us, has to balance the interests of the terrorists' families with those of the families of the "martyrs" killed fighting terrorists. Rather than bringing peace, a general amnesty would allow thousands of criminals to go unpunished, causing widespread resentment and anger, he said. Dogan said the GOT must collect information from surrendered or captured terrorists in order to determine the nature of their crimes. He claimed terrorists would not be forced to provide information about other members of their organizations. -------------- "Nationalists" Reject Broader Law -------------- ¶6. (C) In June, several contacts assured us the reintegration law would be broader than the past repentance laws (ref A), omitting any requirement for surrendering terrorists to provide information about their organization. However, over the past couple of weeks we began hearing that the scope of the law was being scaled back. Ersonmez Yarbay, an ethnically Turkish AK M.P. critical of the Turkish State's approach to Kurdish issues (and long an advocate of peaceful "dialogue" with Kurds in the mountains),told us the bill was reviewed by a committee comprising representatives of: the Justice and Interior ministries; the Turkish National Police; the Jandarma; the Turkish General Staff; the Turkish National Intelligence Organization; and the Diyarbakir State Security Court prosecutor. Yarbay said this committee, dominated by "nationalists," rejected arguments in favor of a broader law placing fewer conditions on surrendering or captured militants. Yarbay, who favors a general amnesty, said nationalist elements of the bureaucracy and military favor a more limited law because they want to keep the PKK/KADEK "bogeyman" alive. -------------- Opposition CHP: "We don't want them back" -------------- ¶7. (C) Although the parliamentary Internal Affairs committee approved the reintegration bill, CHP members of the committee voted against it. In a July 16 meeting with poloff, senior CHP M.P. Fuat Cay explained that Turkey had already dealt with the PKK/KADEK by expelling them from Turkey and by maintaining a military presence in N. Iraq to keep them out. "Now, you are trying to make them return to Turkey; we don't want them to come back," he said. -------------- DEHAP: This Won't Fly -------------- ¶8. (C) As reported in ref B, DEHAP Chairman Bakirhan said "hawks" in the NSC and military were using the recent incident in N. Iraq to undermine the AK Government's efforts to pass a workable reintegration law. He speculated to us that the Turkish State may have determined that the U.S. will force PKK/KADEK fighters in northern Iraq to surrender, obviating the need for a more flexible reintegration law. In its present form, he argued, the draft will do nothing to break the unity of PKK/KADEK forces in the field or encourage returns to Turkey. The U.S. will then be forced to deal with an intact PKK/KADEK. Given the sympathy Kurds in Turkey and ¶N. Iraq feel for the "boys in the mountains" (vice the PKK/KADEK as an organization) this would only increase USG difficulties in dealing with the Kurds. It will also do nothing to solve Turkey's own Kurdish problem; to the contrary it will exacerbate it, he said. ¶9. (C) A long-time source with excellent access to, but independent of, DEHAP/PKK/KADEK and Islamic political circles echoed to us July 16 that the inadequacy of the draft law was due to the influence of hard-liners both in the NSC and among "Turkish nationalists" within AK itself. He added that the issue is playing into the hands of PKK/KADEK/DEHAP hard-liners trying to undercut the growing influence of more moderate elements. According to the source, some senior DEHAP officials, lead by Diyarbakir Mayor Feridun Celik, are eager for closer relations with the U.S. but cannot support such a limited draft -- particularly in the face of ideological and other pressure from the hard-line socialists who dominate the organization. -------------- KADEK-Related Tensions on the Rise -------------- ¶10. (C) As Parliament reviews the controversial law, PKK/KADEK-related tensions are on the rise: -- KADEK terrorists July 8 killed two soldiers in an assassination attempt against the Tunceli Governor; our contacts say KADEK has claimed responsibility for the attack. -- On July 13, four people were killed in an apparent PKK/KADEK attack in Bingol. However, our independent Kurdish nationalist/"Islamic" source was adamant that the attack was actually a "provocation" carried out by the Turkish State. -- Gulbahar Gunduz, head of the DEHAP Women's Wing in Istanbul Province, was allegedly abducted, tortured and raped June 14 by assailants claiming to be policemen who angrily castigated her for supporting a general amnesty for PKK/KADEK members. -- Folk singer Ferhat Tunc was arrested following a DEHAP-organized concert in Mugla Province for allegedly referring to his audience as "PKKers," a statement he denies making. -------------- Comment: Implications -------------- ¶11. (C) The uniformity of views across the Kurdish spectrum -- including by contacts who can be assumed to be close to the PKK/KADEK -- is striking, and suggests that the "reintegration" law: 1) is destined to be seen simply the latest in a long line of unsuccessful "repentance" laws; and thus 2) in its current form will not bring militants down from the mountains. In any case, Turkish security forces have always said the PKK/KADEK keeps its own people in the camps under tight control. Thus, whatever the inducements offered to bring the PKK/KADEK back to Turkey, making the safe haven in N. Iraq tenuous would be necessary to change the equation. PEARSON