Monday, September 10th, 2001
Racism and the Plight of Kurds in Turkey and Iraq
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Despite the large presence of NGOs, the structure of the conference has meant that government delegates could easilyarrive, negotiate and leave without ever having considered actual, real-life experiences and effects of racism. To address this problem, Gay McDougal of the International Human Rights Law Group teamed up with the South AfricaHuman Rights Commission to organize the "Voices Special Forum on Comparative Experiences of Racism." The forum wascarefully planned to attract as many government delegates as possible: the sessions were held during the delegates'lunch break in a room next door to the main hall. One of the speakers at the forum was Rayhan Yalsindach, a Kurdish lawyer now living in Turkey, where hundreds ofKurdish villages have been destroyed and thousands killed in recent years by the Turkish government in its efforts tocrush an armed resistance movement and Kurdish calls for self-determination. Guest: Rayhan Yalsindach, a Kurdish lawyer now living in Turkey.
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A group of African refugees complained to the Helsinki Citizen's Assembly (HCA) Refugee Support Program that they were taken under custody and that they were forced to work for the Turkish police. 

According to H.R.M., a 38 years old refugee from Democratic Republic of Congo who has been in Turkey for the last 16 months, on November 30th, when the Pope was visiting Hagia Sophia and Sultan Ahmed Mosque, he and his twelve roommates decided not to go outside because of the rumours that blacks were being taken under custody by the Turkish police. However, when he ended up having to go outside to buy food at 10pm, he was taken under custody and put on a police car. H.R.M. claims to find himself in Sultanahmet area, where 


According to H.R.M.'s claims, this took about two hours, after which they were taken to a work site where they were made to empty the fences in the trucks. He tells:


He complains that he was treated like a slave by the Turkish police. He says:


Özlem Dalkıran, a spokeswoman for HCA Refugees Support Program told that they were receiving many reports of collective false arrests and forced labor and that they will be reporting these to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. 

The İstanbul Police Office released a press statement that said they "do not think any response to the allegations would be appropriate". 

There are many illegal African immigrants in Istanbul seeking a way into Europe; which has led to conflicts with native Turks.