State of emergency Archives

Torture in Turkey Report: Detainees tortured under Turkish state of emergency

October 25, 2016 By administrator

torture-in-turkey NGO Human Rights Watch says that Turkish officials are violating human rights under the country’s state of emergency. According to a report released on Tuesday, detainees suffer physical and sexual violence.

After a failed military coup against the government shook Turkey in July, contentious President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has cracked down on any and all dissenters and those he perceives to be a danger to his power. Now Human Rights Watch (HRW) is saying that Turkey has not only seen the incarceration and firing of critical citizens, but that the country’s police force has also tortured individuals in their custody.

Erdogan declared a state of emergency after the attempted coup. The decrees that were passed down in this context have removed important human rights safeguards, according to the report “A Blank Check: Turkey’s Post-Coup Suspension of Safeguards Against Torture.”

HRW researchers have documented that the decrees negatively affected the rights of detainees. In the report, they detail 13 cases of alleged abuse, including sleep deprivation, severe beatings, sexual abuse, and rape threats.

‘Nobody will care if I kill you’

One of the cases the report details was brought to the attention of HRW by the family of a detainee. They overheard a police officer talking to another prisoner.

“Because of the state of emergency, nobody will care if I kill you,” the officer reportedly told the detainee. “I will just say I shot you while you tried to run away.”

The lawyer of another prisoner told HRW that officers had threatened to rape his client with a baton, telling him that he wouldn’t survive the next 30 days.

Under the emergency decrees, police can keep anyone incarcerated for 30 days without judicial review. Before the coup, the limit was four days. Detainees can also be denied access to a lawyer for up to five days. All these rules can be used to threaten those in jail, increase fear and keep family members in the dark.

Victims are afraid to talk

No one is able to contact and protect a detainee for five days. Even completely innocent Turks could be kept in jail for a month without the police having to prove anything. And with all the hate Erdogan is inciting against critical voices, prison is not a safe place, according to HRW.

“By removing safeguards against torture, the Turkish government effectively wrote a blank check to law enforcement agencies to torture and mistreat detainees as they like,” Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said.

At the end of July, right after the coup, Amnesty International had also reported that detainees were abused in Turkish prisons. The organization was made aware of beatings, torture and rape. Andrew Gardner, one of the researchers who had worked on the report, said that many victims were afraid to talk and that most lawyers stayed away from taking on their cases.

“I’ve worked on the subject of human rights in Turkey for more than 10 years, and I’ve never seen this kind of fear,” Gardner told DW at the time. “This great fear is present among people and in civil society organizations. Working on human rights in Turkey requires bravery, particularly for domestic human rights organizations, journalists and lawyers. If these brave people are that scared, it means this is serious.”

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/report-detainees-tortured-under-turkish-state-of-emergency/a-36137826

Breaking News California fires lead Gov. Brown to call state of emergency

July 31, 2015 By administrator

By Jeremy B. White

This summer fire season has been particularly intense, with a series of blazes such as the Rocky fire in Lake County and the Wragg fire near Lake Berryessa consuming thousands of acres and leaving firefighters scrambling.

“California’s severe drought and extreme weather have turned much of the state into a tinderbox,” Brown said in a Friday statement. “Our courageous firefighters are on the front lines and we’ll do everything we can to help them.”

In declaring a state of emergency, Brown mobilized the California National Guard and relaxes some regulations like environmental rules or those governing trespassing on private property.

“It eliminates a lot of the red tape or procedural hurdles you can have when multiple catastrophic incidences are colliding,” said Brad Alexander, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

It also clears California to receive assistance from other states, which Brown’s declaration called necessary because California’s “resources have been significantly committed” to containing blazes.

“It opens that door for us,” Alexander said.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article29701042.html#storylink=cpy

Serbia: State of emergency declared due to flooding

May 15, 2014 By administrator

Source: Tanjug

BELGRADE — The Serbian government on Thursday decided to declare a state of emergency in the entire territory of the republic.

The government sent a letter to the Russian government, the European Commission and the Slovenian government asking for humanitarian and technical help to address the consequences of floods, it was stated after the government’s session.

The government ordered the Directorate for Commodity Reserves to deliver to the most affected areas a thousand tons of commercial corn needed as feed.

The state of emergency in the territory of entire Serbia was declared on the request of the National Emergency Situations Headquarters, which earlier on Thursday conferred to discuss the heavy rainfall and floods.

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić announced on Thursday morning that a state of emergency would be declared as he chaired a meeting of the Emergency Situations HQ, and said its goal was to allow all available resources to be deployed to mitigate the consequences of the flooding.

“This is the biggest disaster that can be remembered in the history of Serbia,” he was quoted as saying, and adding that “nobody can defeat water and fire and that is why it is paramount to save lives.”

Vučić once again appealed on citizens to comply with instructions given by competent state bodies in the flooded areas, and ordered engineering and other units of the Serbian Army (VSS) to be engaged in the rescue and assistance efforts in Mačva, Kolubara, and Morava districts.

Vučić said that the situation in some particularly vulnerable municipalities was “kept under control” but that it was necessary to send army and police units to the three districts.

“I am appealing on people to listen, you cannot beat nature, and when you don’t listen to rescuers you risk your own and their lives,” said the prime minister.

He noted that more than four-month average amount of rain fell yesterday and today in Valjevo, Čačak, Loznica, and Ub in western and central Serbia.

Justice Minister Nikola Selaković informed the meeting of the particularly difficult situation in the prison in Valjevo, where the ground floor had to be evacuated, with some inmates transferred during the night to Belgrade.

Vučić congratulated all members of the MUP and the Army on their performance in the rescue efforts during the night.