Turkey has 'prevented return of Kurds'

The Turkish government has been accused of preventing thousands of villagers from returning to their homes three years after hostilities with Kurdish guerillas ended.

A Human Rights Watch report has found Turkey guilty of not facilitating, and in some cases obstructing, the return of up to one million people driven out of their homes during 15 years of fighting against rebels seeking self-rule.

Thousands of villages in the mountainous south-east were evacuated, bombed and burnt, as part of the army's "scorch- ed earth" campaign to cut off what they saw as food and supply lifelines for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels. Hostilities ended in 1999 with the arrest of the rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, leading to a unilateral ceasefire. Yet according to the report, no more than 10 per cent of those displaced have been able to return to their villages.

Many of the villagers ended up living in shantytowns on the fringes of cities in the south-east. They were ill-equipped to deal with urban life and now lack the funds to return home without financial aid. In some cases, returning villagers have been attacked by "village guards", a state-backed militia.

The government appears to lack a cohesive and transparent policy to heal wounds from the protracted, costly conflict against the Kurdish rebels. Under pressure to meet European rights standards, parliament recently passed reforms allowing the Kurdish language to be broadcast and taught, but those have yet to be implemented.

Turkey announced a Village Return and Rehabilitation Project in 1999, but Human Rights Watch said it had, "yielded nothing more than a feasibility study for return to 12 model villages, as yet unpublished".

The pressure group said Ankara should liaise with representatives of relevant organisations, as well as displaced villagers, to develop a comprehensive plan for their safe return. Such a plan would also enable the cash-strapped government to receive inter- national aid.

Jonathan Sugden, a rights watch researcher, said: "The government's schemes don't meet international standards, so they haven't received international funding. Instead of helping villagers get assistance from development organisations, the government is standing in their path."

There was no immediate reaction to the report from the Turkish government.