April 20, 2006

A legal action has been initiated against the police for their attackon the members and administrators of the Peoples Houses on April 18th.

Attorney Ender Büyükçulha, the General Secretary of the Peoples Houses has petitioned the Attorney General’s office for an official investigation against the actions of more than 20 police officers on duty under the Ankara Security Bureau and the Rapid Force. Reacting to this petition, the Attorney General has started an official investigation.

On April 18th, around 9:30PM, the police had attacked the administrators and the members of the Peoples Houses organization as they were leaving the organization’s headquarters near downtown Ankara, the state capital. The attack had escalated to the entrance to the Metro, a busy local municipality rapid transportation system. Many members, including the organization’s attorneys, administrators and the General Secretary had been severely beaten and injured by the cops. The people at the busy downtown location, including some members of unions belonging to DISK, the Confederation of the Progressive Labor Unions who happened to be at the scene had intervened and had repelled the police attack. Yet, three members of the Peoples Houses had been brutally beaten by the cops and had been arrested. The three wounded detainees had been hospitalized for their life threatening wounds at the hands of the police.

The progressive organization, which has been spearheading the protests and organization against the governments IMF directed attacks on the country’s health care system also sent a written request to the newspapers favorable to the JDP government to apologize for their complete fabrication of the events of the day. These papers, namely, the daily Yeni Şafak which is notorious for its unconditional support of the Justice and Development Party’s government, had falsely reported that the members of the organization had raided a police station at downtown Ankara and had wounded five police officers.

On another related topic, the progressive democratic organizations are organizing to start a legal action against the police who fired into a peaceful and legal protest march at noon the same day. The photographs of the police aiming and shooting with their guns into the crowd were published yesterday. In some pictures undercover cops could be seen attacking the crowd with heavy, thick wooden sticks.

Source: www.halkevleri.org.tr
M.B.