In February 1993 the State of Emergency Coordination Council decided that outlying settlements which might support the PKK should be evacuated, and in recent months it appears to have been routine for all or most of the houses in these villages to be burned. As a result of this policy, thousands of indigent villagers have been forced to move to Diyarbaker and other cities in the southeast. Assyrian Christian villagers who were driven out in this way were forced to sign statements saying that they had left because of PKK activity. There have also been many reports of extrajudicial execution and "disappearances" in the course of such raids.