ANKARA, Nov 5 (AFP) - Kurdish officials in Turkey on Friday refuted allegations that German tanks had been used against civilians in the southeast of the country during a 15-year rebellion by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
They were speaking to members of a German parliamentary delegation made up of members of the Greens, part of the ruling coalition in Germany.
"The mayors of towns in the region told us that German tanks had not been used against (Kurdish) civilians," said a member of a delegation who did not wish to be named.
The lawmaker also said his delegation, which visited Sirnak, Cizre and Idil -- all near the frontier with Syria -- had found no evidence of the use of German tanks in the region.
The accusations had been made by a former East German military official who told a German television station that German tanks had been deployed by Turkish military police in the town of Sirnak during the PKK rebellion between 1984 and 1999.
The allegations were rejected by the Turkish government. The German government also said it had no information that the accusations were true.
Confirmation of the use of tanks in the southeast of Turkey would have contravened a 1994 treaty that authorised the delivery of German tanks to Turkey on condition they were not used in Kurdish areas of the country.
11/05/2004 14:53 GMT - AFP