Human rights activists investigating the raids said prisoners were systematically beaten and tortured during the operation and afterward while being transferred to the new prisons. They said the inmates, many of whom are awaiting trial and have not been convicted of a crime, are housed in solitary confinement or small-group isolation.

A joint statement by the independent organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said there were reports that some inmates were stripped and sexually abused with truncheons upon arrival at one of the new prisons.

A report released by the Human Rights Association of Turkey said soldiers used gas, fire and smoke bombs during the raids. It disputed government claims that most inmates who died or were injured had set themselves afire, stating, "preliminary autopsy reports say the majority of inmates died because of bullets and burns and one because of gas poisoning."

"Torture is continuing. The inmates are injured, lonely, cold, wet and naked in the cells, waiting in incomplete prisons without water, electricity and heating," the report said. "The state, instead of protecting the lives of inmates, took their basic right to life in order to prove its own authority."

Turkish forces 'let inmates burn'

BBC report: Friday, 16 March, 2001

A report by the Council of Europe has sharply criticised Turkish security forces, accusing them of serious abuses when they forcefully ended a hunger strike by prisoners last December. The Council's anti-torture committee expressed grave concerns about their actions at a women's detention centre where, it said, security forces set fire to a dormitory and then stood by as inmates burnt to death. The preliminary report alleges the same officers fired bullets and gas grenades at the women prisoners even though they offered no resistance to moves to end their hunger strike.

Twenty-nine inmates and three soldiers died when troops stormed 20 prisons across the country in a security operation. The Council - which has often criticised Turkey's record on prisons - acknowledged that the security forces had, in cases, faced opposition from prisoners when they tried to break up the protests.The inmates were protesting against plans to move them to modern maximum security jails which they said would isolate them and make them more vulnerable to police brutality.

Grenade attack - But in its report the anti-torture committee says the information it gathered during visits to the prisons suggests that "the methods employed by the security forces were not in all cases proportional to the difficulties faced."

According to the document, this was the case at the women's detention centre in Istanbul's Bayrampasa prison, where six out of 27 inmates died of their burns. In spite of offering no resistance, it is alleged the women "were bombarded with gas grenades and other devices for several hours and shot at from time to time. The top floor of the dormitory was set on fire as a result of the action being taken by the security services," says the report.

The Council's visiting delegation also said it found medical evidence to back numerous allegations of beatings handed out by prison officers after they had regained control of the jails. The 41-nation Council of Europe has repeatedly criticised Turkey's treatment of prisoners in recent years, saying certain forms of torture are still widespread. The European Union has endorsed the work of the Council and told Turkey it should improve its human rights record if it wishes to become a member state.

Full horror of jail raids revealed

The Guardian: Tuesday, 9 Jan 2001

The black smoke hanging over Turkey's prisons has gone, and the gunfire has stopped. But more than two weeks after security forces stormed prisons across the country to regain control of dormitories run by leftwing inmates, the problems continue.

Negotiators who tried to mediate between the state and the prisoners before the violence say they have been used. "We were deceived by the government," said Mehmet Bekaroglu, a member of the parliamentary human rights commission. "Now there is a frightening silence." ...

...At Bayrampasa prison in Istanbul, armed paramilitary police and soldiers took up positions on the roof, and began trying to force their way into dormitories by smashing holes in the walls and ceilings.

Accounts from surviving inmates have been brought out of prison by lawyers. They cannot be independently confirmed, but their stories are consistent. "They saw us stand up and they started firing at us," said Hamide Ozturk, a convicted member of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), who was in the women's ward. "After the shooting they started to bombard us with all kinds of bombs. They threw smoke bombs, sound bombs [an explosion where the main by-product is noise], nerve gas and pepper gas. We constantly answered them with slogans and insults. They kept shouting: 'Surrender or we will kill all of you.' We said: 'Come and kill us all if you like, but we will never surrender'."...

..."The fire quickly spread all over the dormitory," said another DHKP-C prisoner, Suna Okmen. "Beds and furniture began to catch fire. The people could not breathe because of the gas bombs and the smoke. It was like being in an oven. Our hair began to catch fire, and because we had barred the door we were unable to get out. We forced the door open...and those who were still able to stand up had to drag us out. [The soldiers] had water cannons, if they had wanted to they could have put the fire out. All they did was watch." ….

… One television image showed a woman handcuffed to a wall with her flesh on fire, but it is impossible to give a full account of what really happened. Eventually the security forces achieved their objectives, and at Bayrampasa the prisoners were forced into the open. "They surrounded us, attacked us and tried to pull us apart," Suna Okmen said. "They took us to other parts of the prison, beat us, kicked us, slapped us, swore at us and then collected us together."

There have been running battles between leftwing demonstrators and the police, and yesterday police arrested 34 people after they tried to lay a black wreath outside the building of Mr Ecevit's Democratic Left party, according to the state-run Anatolian news agency.

Pictures from the Prisons in December 2000 click here
Kerim Yalcintepe's testimony on the Massacre click here
We were burnt alive click here