Un envoy enquires into Turkey killings

A special United Nations envoy has began a ten-day visit to Turkey to look into reported extrajudicial killings and arbitrary executions.

The envoy, Asma Jahangir, is scheduled to meet Turkish officials and representatives of non-governmental organizations in Ankara, Istanbul and the southeastern cities of Diyarbakir and Batman.

Mrs Jahangir will discuss thousands of unsolved murder cases which took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Turkey's eastern and southeastern regions where the security forces were fighting against armed Kurdish rebels seeking self-rule.

Mrs Jahangir will report her findings to the UN Commission on Human Rights.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service