Lice is in the news with the trial of the commanding officer involved in the murderous crimes committed agains the people of Lice beginning tomorrow.
I'm proud that my images of Lice are being widely used in the Turkish media
as I am proud they were used in the European Court of Human Rights against Turkey.
Kurdish Town of 35,000 Burnt to the Ground by Turkish Army in
Oct 21/22/23 1993.
Pictures by Hevallo.
All of these pictures were taken under the most extreme circumstances. They were taken clandestinely as we were under very close 'supervision' by different teams of Turkish Army and Police Intelligence Agencies. They were presented to the European Court of Human Rights by the Kurdish Human Rights Project in their case against Turkey.
Only these two shops were not burnt. Jash or Kurdish traitors owned them, they had to be protected by the army!
Lice (Pronounced Leejay)22nd October 1993. A Kurdish conscript of the Turkish Army came to the town school and told the teachers to take the children somewhere safe as, "there is going to be a massacre here today". Then hundreds of soldiers entered the town with jeeps, tanks, helicopters and flamethrowers.
Many people were shot in the streets as they ran for cover. Holes from millions of rounds ammunition peppered all the buildings and the minaret of the local mosque had a hole the size of a large car at the base.
Eye witness statements told of Land Rovers with small trailers on the back full of 'a chemical substance' which was being shovelled by soldiers onto the floors of shops, only to spontaneously combust into flames.
The only house to be left standing was one that had a Turkish flag hanging in the garden. A young Kurdish pupil had been instructed by the Turkish teacher to take the flag home the previous day so as to wash and dry it. So it was hanging on the washing line. All the shops in the main street were gutted by fire.
A large town with a population of around 30,000 people razed and not a word, not a whisper from the international community. During the nineties over 4,000 Kurdish villages, towns and hamlets were destroyed like this. Always accompanied by the most barbaric Human Rights abuses carried out by the Turkish army. Killings, mutilations, rape, torture, humilation etc.
"Ten people were burnt alive in this room" a visiting UK trade union delegation were told when they visited the town less than one month after the atrocity. Local people say that over 100 people were brutally killed on 22nd and 23rd of October 1993 when the Turkish army razed Lice.
When this and hundreds of other towns, villages and hamlets were being systematically burnt and sacked, European tourists were coming and oiling themselves with suncream and complaining about the showers in their hotels.
Not a word of protest from anyone!
