Vendredi 25 novembre 2005 à 17h02
ANKARA, Nov 25 (AFP) — An investigation into a bomb attack widely blamed on members of the security forces in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast will test the supremacy of law in this country, a senior EU official said.
"This is a test for Turkey -- a test to prove the supremacy of law and that the laws are applied to anyone regardless of who they are," Hansjoerg Kretschmer, the representative of the European Commission in Turkey, was quoted as saying by the NTV news channel.
Kretschmer noted that some of the suspects in the November 9 bombing in the town of Semdinli were members of the security forces involved in the investigation.
"The stance of the government in this respect is very important and we hope the probe will be successfully completed," he said.
The bombing sparked deadly riots and rattled Ankara at a time when it is under pressure to demonstrate its commitment to democracy and the rule of law in its bid to join the European Union.
An angry crowd almost lynched three suspects after the attack, which killed one person, against a bookstore owned by a former Kurdish guerrilla.
Two of them turned out to be gendarmes -- military units that police rural areas -- and the third, who reportedly threw the bomb, was identified as a former Kurdish guerrilla turned informer.
The authorities have drawn criticism for arresting only the Kurdish informer and a third gendarme suspected of shooting at the crowd and killing another person in the unrest that followed.
The government has promised to shed light on the incident and punish the culprits, a move Kretschmer said was "encouraging."
The bombing raised questions over whether Turkey has suceeded in purging rogue elements from the security forces accused of summary executions, extortion, kidnappings and drug-smuggling in the southeast during the early 1990s, the peak years of a separatist Kurdish rebellion.
The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly condemned Turkey for human rights violations during the conflict.
Such breaches remained an obstacle to Turkey's EU bid, which took off with the start of accession talks on October 4.
The Kurdish conflict has claimed 37,000 lives since the armed rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, better known by its acronym PKK and considered a terror organization by Turkey, the EU and the United States, took up arms for self-rule in the southeast in 1984.
Les informations ci-dessus de l'AFP n'engagent pas la responsabilité de l'Institut kurde de Paris.