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Her name was Hanim BARAN and she was fourty years old. She was married and had four children. One day, she was suspected to be a PKK’s member Un jour, soupçonnée d'être une sympathisante du PKK. Then police burst in on her home. With her husband, she had been taken in custody and according to the Anto Terrosit law, they were tortured. As the most of women, she was sexually abused… and then imrisonned in Umraniye. There, I knew her. Hanim was a wonderful woman and her love for everybody impressed all of us. She loed life and respect it above all. She was one of these extraordinary people which it is rare to met in one life. She listened each of us, she was attentive to Nature too. How could she get in touch with Nature, closed as she was, between the four walls of a cell ? Hanim possessed that intelligence of heart and used it for serving her love, even in this cell, where plants are forbidden. In the aim of sharing with us what she felt, Hanim washed potatoes for collecting earth, and let it dry. Then, we had had compost, and after many beautiful plants in our cell. She took care of them all the time : she talked to them, kissed them... She shared all our sorrows... She was like that, it was Hanim. Days passed, her stomach was more and more bloated and hurt her, but she made joke and told she was pregnant of twins... We made protest for she could be cured, but each time, soldiers dit not lead her to a physician, but just for insulting her, humiliating her and beat her. They refused she get off her handcuffs for a medical examination. She always came back without being examined, even auscultated. When she became very ill, they allowed her to get out for seeing a doctor, but it was too late. The diagnostic was hopeless and if she would not be cured, she just could live ten days. All the prisonners made an action and began a hunger strike. Then Hanim BARAN’s lawyers successed to obtain temporarily her freedom, for she could be cured. When she woulb be better, she would have to come back in prison. Unfortunately, Hanim was poor and had just began to learn to write and to read in prison. She lived in a shanty-town and had no money for treatment. She lived six months, then I learned in newspapers that she died, just after the Millenium... A lot of people came to her funerals.. Much policemen too, and tanks ! That’s all. Now, she missed, but in Turkey, that official member to European Union, there are a lot of similar cases... Sibel CEYLAN - January 2000 |