JINHA

AMED –At an announcement in Amed, local associations released the names of a group of PKK fighters killedin 1996 in Sivas province. The fighters had been subjected to an undignified mass burial and repeated disturbances of the grave that prevented them from being identified until now.

Human Rights Association (İHD) Amed Branch Chair Raci denounced the burial conditionsbefore a crowd including the fighters' families, as well as representatives of NGOs and local government from the Democratic Regions Party (DBP).

The fighters were killed October 5, 1996 in a place known as Göldağ-Akdağ in the Divriği region of Sivas province and buried in a mass grave in Bingöl province. Those responsible re-opened and disturbed the grave to add more bodies.

Ayşe Dicle, the co-chair of MEYA-DER,an association supportingthe families of those lost to war in Mesopotamia,also spoke at the announcement atKoşuyolu Park Monument to Life in Amed (Diyarbakır).

Ayşedescribed the long struggle to find these bones so their families could have the basic human right of being able to cry at the grave of their children. This stemmed from the widespread insensible and uncaring approach to Kurds, she said.

Raci called the 1990s massacres of guerrillas a continuation of the events of 1925, when 98 women and children were massacred in retaliation for the Sheykh Said uprising in Kurdistan. He mentioned that the Bingöl government had recently attempted to disturb the grave once more and said it was time to say, "stop."

Lawyer BerdanÖztürklisted the names of the dead as follows:

HüseyinDoğan, code namePiro

SezaiDoğan, code name Rohat

ÖzgürÜstün, code name Brusk

Abdulkadir Tokay, code name Numan

NedimKorkut, code name Rızgar

Handan Poyraz, code name Deniz

ÖmerYavuk or Sayık, code name Orhan

YılmazAnlama, code name Kemal

ElifAydın, code name VerotorFelat

CengizHusunet, code name DoktorNecmi Azad

Abdulkadir Mehmet, code name SahiorSalih

FevziÇelik, code name Serhat

Alp Binboğa, code name Rençber

Mehmet Çelik, code name Kadir

TurabiÖzçakalp, code name Savaş

RuklanYüksekova, code name Necmi

NazımAkbaş, code name DicleFırat

GülizarŞahin, code name Reyhan

Mehmet Özalp, code name Sinan

Garzan İsa Atik, code name Jihat

AbdulrezzakBenice, code name Krib

Mehmet Ali Budak, code name Agit

HasanHaydar, code name Ceyhan

AhmetÇek, code name Serdar

SabriKasırga, code name Nihat

Mehmet Ali, code name Ferhat

TalibErsin, code name Halil

MakbuleÖzhan, code name Pelşin

İsmail Demir, code name CemilKorkmaz

(be-pz/dc/cm)