JINHA

IZMIR – The Izmir First Penal Court saw the first hearing in the case of the massacre of 16 people in the town of Lice, near Diyarbakır. The defendants' absence from the trial, said lawyers and victims, was a continuation of the long "joke" of the trial.

Lice, 1993: a town under fire

21 years later, the 1993 Lice Massacre, in which 16 people died and 1,500 more were forced into exile in the course of the government's dirty war in Northern Kurdistan, has been brought before a court after long struggles by the legal team for the families and the platform "Lice Seeking Justice." In 1993, military police attacked and burned the town of Lice, firing indiscriminately on civilians.

Seyithan Cantürk, who was working in a shop when the raid started, related that a soldier had come to his shop that day, saying "they're going to burn Lice. Get out." He hid in a creek when soldiers attacked, but was heavily wounded and lost his nieces and nephews in the massacre.

Mizgin Cantürk, who lost three siblings that day, lived in the neighborhood of Keban, where the attack was most intense. She was a child at the time.

"Normally it took me five minutes to get from school to my house," she said. "I got there in half an hour because I was under heav fire. I got home. My brothers and sisters were dead; my mother and father were wounded. The living stayed in a pool for a day, hiding. Then the soldiers came. They tortured my father in front of us."

She said her mother, despite bearing shrapnel from the attackhad made it to the court today. "But the defendants didn't come here."

"I was bathing my children at home," said ZarifeCantürk. "Then there was a gunshot. There were helicopters overhead. I looked out the window and they had set my older brother's house on war. My children and I hid by the wall. There was a knock. When I didn't open it, the commando fired a rocket. I can't remember anything after that."

Zarife was hospitalized for 20 days. She woke up to find that three of her children were dead and one daughter was blind.

"We were sitting at home," she said. "What did we ever do to them?"

In spite of the peace process, legal obstacles continue

Lawyers for the thousands of victims have faced long difficulties bringing the case to trial. The Supreme Court refused to admit the case, saying"there was no crime." The Ministry of Justice finally accepted the case, but with just two military police officers on trial. One of the defendants, Regiment Commander EşrefHatipoğlu, had himself prevented the lawyers from conducting investigations and discovery at the site of the massacre, explained lawyers for the case. The lawyers conducted independent research in spite of the obstacles.

Now, the case has been moved to a court in faraway Izmir, which lawyer TahirElçicalled "a coup" against the case.

"Although the crime in question took place in Diyarbakır, the case has been moved here for the witnesses' comfort," he said. But the two defendants, Regiment Commander EşrefHatipoğlu and First Lieutenant TunayYanardağ, were nowhere to be seen at the hearing, claiming to be sick.

"20 years later, these victims need to come face to face with the defendants. We don't believe the excuse about their being sick," said Tahir.

When the court replied that the witnesses would present a report, lawyer ZeynepSedefÖzdağan responded, "In this country, 13-year-old children go on trial. If it isn't too much trouble, the witnesses could be here, even if they're sick. If necessary, there should be a warrant for their arrest."

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MPs and members of the union federation KESK, including the MP from Diyarbakır, NurselAydoğan, also joined the families and their lawyers for the hearing.

"There was a dirty war in this country in the 1990s. For the last three years, the war has stopped," said lawyer YunusMuratakan. "But when you look at examples from around the world, you can see that in these kinds of processes, people need to face history in the case of past crimes. And there wasn't just a massacre in Lice during that period, but in other places. We need to face this."

The judge accepted lawyers' list of the 1,500 other people who want to be able to attend the case, but rejected the lawyers' request for the defendants to be brought under custody before the next hearing. The next hearing will take place June 1.

(ht/mg/cm)