CALL FOR
INTERNATIONAL PRISONS SYMPOSIUM
POLITICAL PRISONERS ARE NOT ALONE, LET’S FIGHT
FOR THEIR FREEDOM
FREEDOM FOR THE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS AND WAR PRISONERS
FREEDOM FOR THE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS AND WAR PRISONERS
The
society was divided into oppressors and oppressed with the emergence of private
property. As the oppressor class; slave owners and feudal lords used constant
force on the oppressed class in order to protect their class domination of the
bourgeoisie in the capitalist system.
By
owning the production and capital equipments of the country, the bourgeoisie
shaped the law and justice for their own benefit with the state apparatus they
established and obtained an ideological integrity. In the bourgeois system,
liberty and law develops entirely for the monopoly bourgeoisie, as the ruling
class.
Depending
on the development of the class struggle and especially within the development
and rise of capitalism, the number of prisons increased even more and becoming
widespread. The bourgeoisie wanted to end the developing and rising struggle
for the rights of the emerging working class and oppressed class by using their
prisons to crush and end this struggle next to all other hard methods they
implement.
The
bourgeoisie tried to keep away all the revolutionists from class struggle, whom
they couldn’t massacre, by capturing, keeping them in prisons for years and
isolating them from society. The
bourgeoisie has been trying to create a special kind of fear within the
community by using prisons as a means of intimidation. They quite clearly
declared that, are you moving against our system and implementations, here’s
what you’ll see! Especially after the
90’s the imperialists and their collaborators have conducted and intensified
their attacks seemingly from one single center on all forms of struggle that
communists, revolutionaries, consistent democrats would see valid in the
struggle for rights. Although they are
the actual terrorists, declaring revolutionaries and communists to be
terrorists has been a used as a weapon of war. This by calling those who fight
against imperialist plunder and attacks and struggle for the rights of the
oppressed and their representatives to be terrorists. They are the ones, who
established special torture centers, used airplanes for torture, even bombed
wedding processions and villages, killing hundreds of thousand people. They are
the ones, who oppress all the rights of workers and their representatives’
strong call for these rights and they are the ones applying violence
systematically. Around the world, it is the imperialists and their
collaborators, who apply isolation-torture and violence in prisons.
The prisons issue is not just a problem that is confined to the borders
of a country. There is a dual aspect to
prisons in the world today. One aspect of this is about country’s boundaries,
and the other aspect relates to the international dimension.
With
the occupation of Iraq by U.S. imperialism the Abu Ghraib prison has remained
on the world’s agenda for a long time and still is remembered. Along with the occupation of Iraq the U.S.
has constructed the Abu Ghraib prison within Iraq in order to assimilate and
intimidate the anti-occupation insurgents in Iraq. The tortures within this
prison have occupied the public agenda for a long time. The tested methods of
torture in this prison have been exported literally to many countries.
Similarly
with Guantanamo prison which became known as a special prison with the
occupation of Afghanistan by the U.S was till recently used as a torture
center. With photos of captured Taliban and Al Qaeda members dressed in special
clothes with their hands tied in the back in solitary confinement, the US
wanted to intimidate the whole world. The United States was not content with
just that, everybody knows how many people were kidnapped and brought to US to
be judged. Such international applications are not limited just to the U.S.
Imperialist
nations judge and arrest all the revolutionaries and patriots at every
opportunity by cooperating internationally. France is very cruel to ETA
militants. Any ETA member or sympathizer spotted on French territory is
arrested without hesitation and there are currently many of them sentenced to
hundreds of years in prison. Subjected to complete isolation, resistance of ETA
militants is isolated by the French public opinion. This application was made
legal by also applying this to Turkish revolutionaries and revolutionaries of
other countries and patriots from other nations.
The same application is also available in Germany. In Germany where
especially revolutionaries from Turkey and dozens of revolutionaries of the
Kurdish national movement have been tried and are being punished with the
specifically designed anti-terror 129B law is to intimidate and assimilate
revolutionaries.
Opponents
of the bourgeoisie or criminal offenders in the community in one place as a
means of punishment was first implemented in 1596 in Amsterdam. This practice
is referred to as“Flemish model”. The practice of isolation in prisons has
continuously developed till today. Prisons are a part of the class struggle
nowadays. The revolutionaries and patriots don’t only fight the enemy on the
outside. Revolutionaries in prisons are resisting against their class enemies.
Bourgeoisie not only isolated the revolutionaries and patriots from society, it
also applied a special program in order to alienate them to their own values.
Revolutionaries, as it is resisting the consciousness of the bourgeoisie to
preempt sanctions continue to pay the price.
The
imperialists and their local lackeys’ practices in the prisons after the second
imperialist wars gave further impetus. The reason for this was the victory of
the Red Army against fascism and the tremendous impact it created on the
continents of and the establishment of a series of democratic republics deeply
frightened the imperialists and their local lackeys.
Both the U.S. imperialism and western imperialists themselves in order
to halt the largest threat to them, socialism, have increased their attacks on
the national and social liberation struggles in the world, both locally as
internationally. Besides the massacres they have committed they also have
performed a series of experiments on revolutionaries and patriots in prisons.
Within these experiments “isolation” is considered to be the most effective
treatment plan and is till now the most commonly used method in the world.
This
system was developed by Dr. Edgar Schein who performed tests on Korean
prisoners in Korean prisons during the US imperialisms war in Korea in
1950. The core of this practice was to
isolate political prisoners from each other and society, to weaken the
resistance, force obedience, distort personalities and eventually aims
surrender as a part of a comprehensive project.
This program has been developed further by
Germany and the UK and the first implementation has been in these countries.
Isolation and retention in a single cell in was first applied intensively on
the RAF militants in Germany in 1970’s. In England, at the beginning of the
80’s, it was applied to IRA militants very rigidly, the resistance of Bobby
Sands and nine comrades lost their lives during the hunger strike against the
uniform imposition.
Looking
at recent history of the attacks against political prisoners in the world and
the number of revolutionaries who lost their lives in these attacks, the
severity of the problem can be observed more clearly.
Some
of these are;
In a
Mexican prison in 1992 111 prisoners were killed in a massacre which was
organized by military and policed. Also on 18 February 2001 in Caradiru prison
the resistance that demanded the return of 10 exiles prisoners at least 16
prisoners were massacred.
The
complete and high-security prison against the Red Brigades in Italy aimed the
complete isolation from society. The resistance in the Trani prison on 28-29th
December 1980 has caused huge repercussions.
This resistance began with 18 guards being taken hostage, after this
resistance, the isolation practices have been severely reversed.
One of
the countries where the isolation practices have been implemented in the world
is the Peruvian prisons. A delegation sent by the Peruvian government to
Germany in 1987 examined the prison system where the RAF militants were held in
isolation and imported this to Peru. Political prisoners resisted this system
in early 90’s and 450 of there were massacred in a single operation. Germany
is well ahead in teachings on solitary confinement is also ahead in murders.
When they were unable to subdue the RAF militants they were placed in solitary
confinement in the most secure prison and killed. Afterwards claiming they had
committed suicide. That reckless and hypocritical...
Prisons in Turkey have never disappeared from the agenda of society. In
the 1970s, parallel to the developing of the revolutionary struggle and
struggle in general an increase in the number of political prisoners was
observed. The problem of prison in the 1970s was not such a torrid as it is
today. With the start of the fascist military
junta in 1980, prisons have been on the society’s agenda ever since.
With the September 12th military fascist junta the prisons became a
serious agenda point for the states. During this period a major attack was
launched on the prisons with the most typical implementation to intimidate, dehumanize
and to break the prisoners. The E -Type and Special Type prisons, became
operational especially in this era. E- Type prisons are the type where 18 to 22
people can stay in the same larger cell.
In Special Type prisons 4-6 people stay in the same cell. Metris, Mamak and Diyarbakir have become
notorious examples of these types of prisons. Tens of revolutionary prisoners
out of the thousands there have lost their lives in these prisons. During the
1984 death fast in the Metris and Sağmalcılar prisons against the solo type
uniforms 4 revolutionaries lost their lives.
With the experience gained from the 80’s the bourgeoisie began to lay
the stones for the cell type prisons. The Eskisehir prison was the first one to
be amended within this process. In 1987-1988 the architectural Construction of
the Eskisehir prison was converted to a single cell type prisons. Even when
this prison was emptied after the resistance of the revolutionary prisoners, in
1991 it, being called coffin type, was again reopened. The foundation of the isolation practices
were laid in 1991 when a specially issued Anti-Terrorism Act was passed. In the
death fast and indefinite hunger strike that lasted 69 days, which was launched
in 1996 against the cell type prisons 10 revolutionaries lost their lives. The
fascist Turkish state prepared for the cell type prisons with a more rigorous
attack. The preparation of the cell-type prisons commenced in 2000, 122 people
inside and outside have lost their lives either in the death fast or from supporters
outside the prisons.
Since 1980 at least 300 revolutionary prisoners have died as a result of
death fasts, torture and disease in Turkish prisons. Some of the main and most
brutal attacks on prisons by the fascist Turkish state are;
In the attack on Buca prison on September 19th, 1995 three revolutionary
prisoners were slaughtered while 40 prisoners were injured.
January 4, 1996 in Ümraniye prison four revolutionary prisoners lost their lives in the attack, while dozens of prisoners were severely injured in various places of their bodies.
September 24th 1996 in the attack on the Diyarbakir prison, 10 patriot
prisoners were massacred.
September 26th, 1996 in Ankara
Ulucanlar prison, 10 revolutionary prisoners were murdered during the attack on
the prison, while dozens of prisoners were injured in various parts of their
bodies.
On 19th December 2000 in Turkey, the fascist dictatorship attacked the revolutionaries while the death fast was ongoing slaughtering 28 revolutionaries while hundreds of revolutionaries were severely injured.
One of the countries that experienced a similar attack was India. Most
of the laws in India are based on English law that was applied during the
colonial period. The number of political prisoners in India today is over a
hundred thousand. The prisons in India where prisoners from all layers of
society are being held are also cell-type prisons. As class struggle in India evolves attacks of
the Indian state increases. In the past, some laws would be valid for only some
states only, from 2001-2002 onwards they are applied on entire India. West
Bengal, etc. all have their own terror laws. It has a counter- terrorism center
and a central intelligence organization. Besides the Dalits who struggle
against forced migration there are people from other tribes in the Indian
prisons. Also there are political
prisoners from revolutionary organizations and Maoist prisoners in prisons. Likewise in North Bengal region, there are
prisoners who are fighting for a better life. In India under the name of
counter-terrorism young people are
criminalized. The Manipur movement is one of the concrete examples of
this liberation movement. There are thousands of Kashmiri detainees in Kashmir
who have been arrested. Other than this there hundreds of regions which have
their own native tongue such as Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh,
in these regions
the prisoners are struggling to use their own language in prisons. Maoist prisoner
are subjected to specific application. In Manipur there are prisons built
specially. When the Maoist prisoners organize themselves in another prison,
they are sent to the prison in Manipuri in order to be subjected to solitary
confinement
The sanctions imposed on Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons are
not different from the others. Since 1967 Israeli occupation of Palestine,
Israel, the Palestinian resistance more than 60 thousand were arrested and
imprisoned. At the beginning of the second intifada in 2000, the number of
Palestinians detained is 1500. The number of Palestinians who were arrested in
2005 is 8,500. From 1995 onwards the
state of Israel has placed Palestinian prisoners in prisons on Israeli
territory. The number of Palestinian children detained in Israeli prisons never
dropped below 100. And all of these children were judged in normal courts and
given various penalties. One of the main attacks that the Palestinian women
prisoners in Israeli prisons are exposed to is rape. In addition to physical
torture in Israeli prisons an intense psychological pressure is also being
applied. Solitary confinement is also implemented on Palestinian prisoners in
Israeli prisons. Each of Palestinian prisoners is confined solitary to prevent
them seeing each other. Defense rights are restricted and prisoners are sometimes
placed in solitary confinement for 60 days as punishment and are not allowed
any contact with anyone during this time.
The U.S being one of the architects of torture and isolation practices
have increase the isolation further on the prisoners in the U.S after the
September 11th attack. At least eight thousand people are detained in specially
built secret prisons in the U.S who were captured in various parts of the world
for being involved in anti-US resistances.
Apart from this, prisoners in the United States are in hundreds of
categories. Inside the U.S. there are prisoners from national liberation and
anti-racist movements, for example, the indigenous African / black, Puerto
Rican Xicano liberation movement and the North American anti-imperialist
movements. Additionally in people from various parts of the world such as
Colombia, Palestine, Egypt and Ireland are imprisoned in the U.S. There are
prisoners from radical environmentalist and animal rights movements.
Some of the methods to control and eliminate resistance by arrests and
imprisonment that the US imperialism resorts to are;
1. Local and international military bases and fortifications are used as
a detention center and prison.
2. Set
up and use local and international secret prisons and detention centers.
3. To incarcerate and torture resisters using dependent states
4. To set up and operate private security prisons and detention centers.
5. Attempting to impose Criminal laws of the United States to other countries.
3. To incarcerate and torture resisters using dependent states
4. To set up and operate private security prisons and detention centers.
5. Attempting to impose Criminal laws of the United States to other countries.
The
political prisoners in Mexican prisons are facing the same treatment as any
other political prisoners in other countries. Similar treatments are practiced
in Mexican prisons aiming to have political prisoners surrender and subdue.
There are hundreds of political prisoners in Mexico. There are two types of
prisons in Mexico. First, regional prisons where many prisoners are in the same
cell, and secondly, the Cefferas Maximum Security Prisons affiliated to the
Federal Secretariat of Public Security. Many political prisoners are being held
in this prison. The Mexican government has never accepted the existence of
political prisoners. Political prisoners are judged on drug charges in Mexico.
Political prisoners are spending 23.30 hours within the cells. They are only
allowed to a 30 minutes airing time, but due to the surrounding high walls it
is not possible to have any sunlight at all.
The prisoners are searched thoroughly before airing time, they are being
stripped naked, Removed from prisoners passed through the ventilation custom
search, being stripped naked, their honor violated through rectal searches. The
prisoners who resist this are subjected to torture. The right of defense is
limited and their consultations with their lawyers are prevented as a means of
punishment. Books are not been given such as deprivation of any other social
activity.
All these applications and sanction have only
one single target: While the ruling
classes have not been able to assimilate and break the mass upheavals and
resistances they are attempting to implement these inhumane treatments and
applications on the revolutionaries, communists and patriots in order to have
them surrender. In order to achieve this millions of dollars are being spent
for building new high-security prisons.
Wherever in the world, the main purpose and aim of keeping political
prisoners isolated from the society in cell-type prisons or in private security
prisons is to deprive the prisoners from their basic human rights, to extort
their earned rights, to push the prisoners into loneliness by distributing the
organization of prisoners, to take the solidarity of the prisoners away, to cut
their life veins by ending their social, cultural and sporting activities, and
make them betray their cause by convicting them to isolation and making them
live them alone with torture, isolation.
In all countries where there are political prisoners, the bourgeois
media is an accomplice... The bourgeois media attempted to portray prisons as a
pleasant place have always hidden the atrocious truth of torture and
ill-treatment from society. The U.S
bourgeois media has always remained silent. The prisons in Turkey record the
most human rights violation while the bourgeois media and television constantly
manipulate these facts. When the resistances in the prisons end in deaths or
injuries even the slightest news is not reported. We clearly observe the same form and method
in Mexico, in India, Brazil and other countries.
History has witnessed the resistances of the revolutionary and patriotic
prisoners against torture, repression and violation of rights in prisons.
Political prisoners have upheld a continuous line of resistance against all
kinds of pressure, repression and massacre by the imperialist bourgeoisie and
their henchmen. From time to time these resistances have led to victories in
regaining their rights, and have upheld revolutionary dignity. Palestinian
prisoners in Israeli prisons, Iraqi insurgents in Abu Ghraib prison, and
political prisoners in India, Iran, Brazil, Mexico, USA and Turkey have put up
determined resistances and have become examples. The
U.S. imperialists, is the supervisor and practitioner of torture particularly
in Latin America and the Far East, Middle East.
Special enforcements were applied to those who were released from Abu
Ghraib to ensure conditions that they couldn’t speak anymore.
Economic crisis of the imperialist system continues to grow. The crisis
brought about large numbers of unemployment and poverty. In 2008, the world
economic crisis that began in the United States continues to circulate. Now the
crisis is concentrated in Europe. Without exception, the economic crisis
affected all countries, Greece, Italy, Spain, etc. Also in many countries
besides the economical crisis it turned into an inability to lead and manage.
European imperialists have attempted to rescue countries such as Greece with
Financial aid programs as a temporary fix however currently even this temporary
fixed has become ineffective. In a world where unemployment and poverty are
increasing uncontrollably the imperialist system and the bourgeoisie in the countries
under their influence are putting the burden of the crisis on the shoulders of
the working class and toilers. Workers
and the oppressed peoples are objecting to this “we have not caused this crisis
and we will not carry the burden of it”.
They are increasing the resistance, raising their voices through general
strikes, taking to the streets where they clash with the police.
Developing social resistance against the imperialist bourgeoisie and the
servants are taking increasingly drastic measures. By new anti-terror laws and
special laws toughening the state repression and thus intimidating society even
more. Places of detention where it will grow and grow further in the coming
years are inevitable. Prisons problem will become more and more a social
problem. The sun will not be darkened,
the imperialists and their collaborators are afraid of the lives, beliefs of
revolutionaries and communists. Democracy, human rights nonsense expressed to
the extent that is an admission of hypocrisy and fraud.
So far, the investigation and with the emerging research results also
showed that, political prisoners and prisoners called ordinary prisoners faced
problems from time to time that are seen are as such;
1 Cell types prisons are becoming more common around the world
2 Prisoners are left alone in the cell type prisons.
3 Torture becoming structural
4 Collective living of revolutionaries is abolished
5 Putting an end to the common living area
6 Cultural, social and sporting activities are eliminated.
7 By isolating prisoners from each other, it is aimed to wipe out human
feeling, impersonalize them and eventually to have them surrender
8 Limitations in family visits and periodically prohibiting these visits
aim to isolate socially.
9 By restricting the rights of defense, Lawyer bans prevented from
obtaining
The indictment and other documents
10 Books, journals, newspapers, reading, listening and watching bans on
television and radio, news-making and self-development is prevented.
11 Usurped the rights of the defense in the native tongue
11 Usurped the rights of the defense in the native tongue
These and similar programs implemented and the destructive results
caused by these have been documented through letters of prisoners several other
researches.
1. Emotional distress and fear of contacts:
2. Anorexia
3. Intolerableness state
4. Impairment of alertness and sensitivity
5. Alienation to the truth
6. Orientation and skills atrophy
7. Loss of orientation
8. Hallucination
9. To be under constant tension
10. Decline of thinking ability
11. Amnesia
12. Speech difficulties
13. Perceptual distortions and misperceptions
14. Deterioration of the balance organs
15. Discomfort from light, the feeling of being enclosed by everything.
16. Sensitivity to excessive noise
17. Driven to suicide
18. Weight loss
19. Visual impairment
Besides
these there are numerous diseases that are occurring due to the prison
conditions. Some of these are
tuberculosis, hepatitis, kidney disease, stomach bleeding, heart failure, low
back and neck pain due to torture, severe headache, sinusitis, arthritis, rheumatic
diseases.
In the light of these facts, we , the undersigned organizations 25-26-27 April 2014 call on all democratic institutions, human rights defenders to participate in the international prisons symposium in Turkey / Istanbul to support the political prisoners , to expose the implemented applications, to fight for the rights of political prisoners, against impunity of those who torture and ill- treat prisoners, for the U.S secret prisons to be exposed, for the political status of revolutionary prisoners to be adopted all over the world, for the elimination of cell type prisons, for the elimination of the violations of rights in the defense , for the recognition of defense in the native tongue
Participants
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