PREPARED STATEMENT OF SAHABEDDIN BUZ, FROM TURKEY

On September 4, 1982 I travelled to Turkey in order to settle the matter of my military service. I was supposed to report for duty on November 1, 1982. During the late night of September the 18th and into the early hours of September 19, my father's house in Guemuesgoeze/Antakya was surrounded and thoroughly searched by about twenty members of the military police, who were looking for banned books and weapons-of which they found nothing of the sort. At the end of this, they informed my father that I had to come with them to headquarters'

in order to make a statement.

I was brought in a military car to the military's local precinct in Harbiye. After arriving, my eyes were blindfolded and I was forced into another car which brought me to an unknown place. After a twenty-five minute drive, I was led into a building and shoved into a room, in which there already were three Afghan refugees.

The next morning, a commissioner of the political police (Ali Tiras) entered and asked which of the detainees had come from Germany. Immediately after I identified myself, I was met with punches in the face and handballs pounded against my chin, on the grounds that when a member of the police enters the room you are supposed to stand-up. After a short while he entered once again. After all of us had sprung to our feet, he once again struck me, this time with the question, of how I came to be standing. Other members of the political police entered the room at different intervals and beat me, during the course of which they struck me in the face, head, all over my body and

me with their

with the intention of intimidating me, stamped on
feet. This treatment lasted until late in the afternoon.

room.

Toward evening I was brought blindfolded into another There I was asked if I knew why I was brought there; after I answered no, a number of police officers began beating me. I was subsequently told that I had to reflect on the reason I was brought there. Late that night, I was fetched and once again confronted with the same question. Once again, the brutal beating was repeated during which I was slugged and kicked back and forth between police officers. During this episode one of my teeth was knocked-out.

Afterwards, I

fell unconscious and awoke the next morning. was swollen; I could barely see and could not given nothing to eat or drink the whole day. the same form of torture was reapplied to me.

My entire body

move. I was Toward evening,

Following those two days, I was brought into a room equipped with a built-in beam furnished with a number of meat cleavers.

I was strung-up to this by my wrists, so that only the tips of my toes were touching the floor; the majority of my weight being suspended. This suspension-method of torture, also administered with blindfolded eyes, lasted four days and nights. Besides not having been given anything to eat or drink, I was also threatened with having to eat my own excrement. During these four days, four I had sandbags and fists slammed against my

stomach and chest.

In addition, my genitals were crushed.

In the midst of this, I was reproached with having supposedly travelled five times in 1975 to the German Deomocratic Republic (this assertion was not true). There were further questions, about the formation of the Communist Party and its leadership

structure.

I was

summoned to write down the history of the Turkish Left

from 1965-1982.

To facilitate this, I was brought down from the beam. I was seated at a bench. While one of the officials (Husesyin) pressed a writing implement into my hands and continuously hit my forehead with his fist, the other (Muammer) played with his gun in front of me.

Though I still couldn't make any kind of a statement, after four days, the falaka was inflicted upon me. A tire was placed around my head and across my right arm, SO that I had to lay on the floor, and my feet were bound together in a device; a

number of officials with wooden and rubber truncheons contin

After

uously beat the soles of my feet until they split-open.
wards, I was forced to stamp my feet in salt water, something

which I was unable to do.

Thereupon, my feet were forcibly

dunked into the salt water by the officials.

This torture lasted for about ten to fourteen days, it always

took place at night, and likewise, on the weekends during the day.

During this time, the following questions were asked and respectively made into assertions:

-the Youth Center in Hannover was a Maoist/Leninist Organization -IG-Metall publishes a German-Turkish publication, complete with a hammer and sickle, to which I supposedly subscribed and regularly read

-I supposedly took place in the May 1 DGB demonstrations.
-I am supposedly a member of the labor union.

-I am supposedly a member of the Turkish Left.

In addition to the above, I was to have supposedly put down on a sheet of paper provided by Hikmet Sereflioglu (political police official), the names of existing left organizations in Hatay before and after the coup. I was urged to add I was threatened

my name to one of the named organizations.

-This was

with not leaving the police's rooms alive should I not enter my name with one of the leftist organizations listed. apparently a rule for all detainees.

After about two weeks of detention the written accusations which the officials had formulated on

two pages, were set

in front of me. Complete reproaches made were devoid of any Since I denied all of these reproaches, and yet

truth.

a charge was supposed to be fabricated, I was subjected to torture by electric shocks.

this time the floor was

I was once again brought into a room, wet, and once again a tire was placed around my head and across my right arm, then electrical wire was attached to my ears, nose, penis, and toes. Electricity was conducted in erratic intervals. I was very often unconscious as a result. In order to revive, me cold water was constantly poured over so that I might again feel the electric shocks

three hours to sign the prepared confession, otherwise I

me,

would be killed and my corpse would be found in a sack in the

mountains of Antakya.

Since I had to take this threat seriously and could not endure the torture any longer, I signed without having read or acknowledged the contents. After this, the always boastful scriptwriting Hikmet Sereflioglu, , explained to me that he had written what would surely guarantee me years behind bars.

As concerns the torture by the police, all of the members of the political police were participants. By name, I know of:

Hikmet Sereflioglu: Torturer and writer of my "confession"

During the approximately fifty days of police detention, I

was brought twice at my own request, to the hospital in Antakya and presented to a physician there. The physician took no

In contrast

to

notice of my grave injuries, but instead gave me some aspirins. the usually observed practice, my name was not entered in the registry, due to the fact that I was accompanied

After being held in solitary detention, I was brought to the