This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ADANA 0240 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL PTER IZ TU ADANA
SUBJECT:  THE "REINTEGRATION LAW" AS PERCEIVED 
          IN SOUTHEASTERN TURKEY 
 
 
REF:  ANKARA 4499 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY: Most contacts affiliated with 
the possible beneficiaries of this law see no 
change between this law and previous versions. 
They told post's political FSN that the recently 
enacted law would not be successful in 
encouraging PKK/KADEK militants to disarm.  As a 
result, only two groups appeared to be taking 
advantage of this law, PKK/KADEK supporters not 
guilty of any violent action and members of the 
(Turkish) Hizbullah. Reliable information on the 
numbers of persons who have applied for the 
benefit is difficult to come by-press reports 
vary and government officials are reluctant to 
give out information on the number of applicants. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
 
¶2.  (SBU) A senior official in the Siirt chapter 
of a respected, credible human rights NGO 
expressed the belief that many (Turkish) 
Hizbullah members are applying to benefit from 
this law because the current Interior Minister 
Abdulkadir Aksu (who held the same office during 
the early 1990s) allegedly has ties with the 
organization.  The official believes that it is 
more likely that (Turkish) Hizbullah members, as 
opposed to PKK/KADEK militants, will apply to 
benefit from the law. 
 
 
¶3.  (SBU) A prominent legal association official 
with credible ties to the human rights NGO 
community in Diyarbakir stated that more 
militants would apply if not required to give 
information to the security forces.  He claimed 
that, because PKK/KADEK is not an underground 
organization, the organization took 
responsibility for all of its actions and that 
these actions were well known to the government. 
Therefore, the militants' disclosure of 
information was not necessary.   He believed that 
PKK/KADEK demonstrated willingness to lay down 
its arms, but the 12-year sentence imposed for 
previous participation in violence represented a 
serious deterrent.  According to the official, 
the government's reluctance to establish a 
dialogue with NGOs while drafting the law also 
served as an impediment to PKK/KADEK militants 
laying down their arms and taking advantage of 
the "reintegration" law. 
 
 
¶4.  (SBU) A prominent Hakkari attorney described 
the beneficiaries of the law as belonging to the 
following two groups: prisoners charged with 
"sheltering and harboring PKK/KADEK militants" 
and a group of persons who had cut their organic 
ties with the organization about ten or fifteen 
years ago, previously lived in Iraq or Iran and 
were now married with children.  The militants 
inquired about the law but no one applied to 
benefit from it after the PKK/KADEK's 
leadership's announcement that banned members 
from doing so.  The Hakkari Mayor and the Mayor 
of Sirnak stated that, if the law had been 
presented in the form of a general amnesty, the 
organization's leadership would have applied. 
 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Information on the numbers of persons 
who have applied for benefit is difficult to come 
by.  The Diyarbakir State Security Court (SSC) 
directed inquiries to the Justice Ministry. The 
Sirnak Deputy Governor stated that the daily 
figures could be obtained from the Interior 
Ministry.  So far post has been unable to obtain 
any official figures. The reported numbers of 
people taking advantage of the "Reintegration 
law" vary widely in the press, anywhere from 100 
to 547 in Diyarbakir.  In the August 27, 2003 
Milliyet, Army Corps General Ataman announced 279 
applicants in Elazig, but only 2 from rural 
areas. 
 
 
¶6. (U) According to a September 2, 2003, 
"Milliyet" report, 2,138 people applied to take 
advantage of the "reintegration" law that went 
into effect on August 6, 2003.  The number of 
those who turned themselves in voluntarily was 
¶211.  The daily wrote that 1,507 of the total 
applicants were mostly PKK/Kadek and Hizbullah 
inmates in prison. 
 
 
The following is a list of their affiliations: 
 
 
PKK/Kadek               1169 
Hizbullah               338 
DHKP/C                  22 
Hizb-ut Tahrir          28 
TKP/ML                  4 
IBDA-C                  26 
Sivas convicts          52 
TKP/ML-TIKKO            26 
Dev-Sol                 22 
TIKKO                   21 
Other organizations     240 
REID