Witnesses speak on Paris killings

More details emerging on the execution of three Kurdish woman politicians
Three Kurdish women activists, Sakine Cansiz, a co-founder of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), Fidan Dogan, representative of the KNK (Kurdistan National Congress) in Paris and Kurdish activist Leyla ?aylemez, were found dead with gunshot wounds in the Kurdistan Information Office in Paris early Thursday morning.

According to the first details of the autopsy report on the bodies of Cans?z, Do?an and ?aylemez, three women were hit in the head by more than one bullet. The report put the death of the three Kurdish women between 6 and 7pm on Wednesday 9 January. “One of them was hit by four bullets on the head, and two others were hit by three bullets each”, said a judicial source speaking to French channel TF1. According to report by TF1, 9 bullet casings and three cartridge bullets were found during the examinations started at the scene after the discovery of bodies of three Kurdish activists. The bullets are said to have been fired from a 7.65 mm caliber pistol. The number of pistols used in the bloody attack is expected to become clear after the announcement of a ballistic investigation into the incident.
Speaking to ANF about the execution of three Kurdish woman activists in the Kurdistan Information Office in Paris on Wednesday, two witnesses who first entered the office in the night of 9 January told about what they saw at the scene of the killings.

A woman witness, who says she had a close friendship with Fidan Do?an (Rojbin), tells the followings; “The last time I spoke to her was in the evening of Tuesday (Jan.8). On Wednesday, I called her again and sent her messages many times between 6 and 7 pm but she wasn’t answering my calls or messages. I continued to call her till 8 pm but then I started to worry about her as she would never leave me without news for such a long time.”

The witness tells that she therewith started to call Rojbin’s friends who however had no news about her either. “Then I started to feel much worried and decided to go to the office [Kurdistan Information Office] to see if she was all right. As I also had a key of the office, I went to the offive with a friend at around 00:15. When we reached there, we saw from outside that the light was still on in one of the rooms of the office, which was an unusual thing as Rojbin would never stay in the office till that time.”

The woman tells the followings as to how they tried to get into the office; “We first opened the outside door as we already knew its code.I had the key of the office but there were two doors to be opened, so we rang all the doorbells in the building but nobody opened the door. As we insisted, somebody answered us and asked what we wanted. When we told him that we needed to reach our friends inside the building, he said he would call the police if we didn’t leave the building. There was another house with lights on but nobody answered from it either.

Then a friend called me and said that he couldn’t reach Rojbin for some time. He rushed to the office when we told him that we were trying to reach her there, says the witness and continues as follows;

“When our friend came, we once again rang all the doorbells but again, nodody was answering. Then our friend shouldered the door open and I went up to the first floor and opened the door of the office. What I saw inside was an undescribable savagery, a mass murder.”

The second witness among them told the followings as to what they saw in the office; “There were two rooms in the office and the light was on in one of them. The first thing I saw was Sakine’s feet. She had died leaning her back on the cupboard. Then I moved forward and saw the face of Rojbin who was lying on her back, blood sheding from her mouth and her eyes closed. Her face seemed frozen. There was a suitcase between them. They were probably killed while preparing their suitcases as several things were still outside the suitcase, on a knee of Sakine who also had a swelling near her eye.”

“Then my friend screamed, she was shocked. When I went near her, I saw Leyla (Ronahi) lying face downwards on the floor. Shocked by the scene, we rushed outside where the other friend of us was speaking to a police officer. It was around 01:20 when all these happened within several minutes; we went into the office, saw them and then went out in shock, without knowing what to do.”

The witness remarks that nothing in the office had been touched or moved from its place and notes that “It was obvious that they had been killed in a defenceless way as they seemed to have been shot on the head.”

An official from the Kurdish association in Les Mureaux near Paris told that “Rojbin called our association on 8 Jan. evening and told Ronahi that she had arranged a ticket to Germany for her for 13:30 next day. Then Ronahi went from Les Mureaux to Paris at 09:50 and she was met by Rojbin at 11:30 on the 9 Jan. A friend of ours went to the Kurdistan Information Office at 13:30 but nobody answered the door.

Some other friends of Rojbin said that she hadn’t answered their phone calls as of 12:00 on Wednesday.

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