STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2001 10:21 AM Subject: Turkey. [Ozgurluk] AFP - "Pathologists blast govt account ofprison crackdown deaths" From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2001 16:17:59 +0200 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Ozgurluk] AFP - "Pathologists blast govt account of prison crackdown deaths" AFP - "Pathologists blast govt account of prison crackdown deaths": ANKARA An official pathologists' report has blasted holes through the Turkish government's account of how 30 inmates died during a paramilitary crackdown on hunger striking prisoners last December, centre-left newspaper Radikal said on Monday. Six of the prisoners, all women, were killed in an Istanbul jail by police using excessive quantities of tear and nerve gas, according to a report written in February by forensic pathologists, Radikal said. At the time the government said five of the women had set fire to themselves and the sixth had been suffocated by the smoke. They were among 12 inmates officially reported to have died in Bayrampasa prison, on the European side of Istanbul, during the four-day crackdown launched on December 19. But the pathologists' report demolishes the government account, saying "police used numerous tear and nerve gas grenades in an enclosed space measuring 30 square metres (yards), which apparently caused a fire and subjected the inhabitants of (women's) dormitory C1 to a very high threshold of chemicals and smoke". Autopsies on the victims revealed traces of organic solvents including tolulene, xylene and methanol on their skin and clothing, the report said. Prisoners did not fire on security forces, as the government had claimed in justification of its heavy-handed assault, the report said, adding that the shots had been fired from outside the jail. Security forces stormed 20 prisons on December 19 in a bid to end a hunger strike begun in October by mainly left-wing inmates protesting at the introduction of new, high security jails. Some 30 prisoners and two paramilitary policemen died in the assault. The prison strike has placed Turkey's bleak human rights record in the international spotlight at a time when the country needs to make far-reaching democratic reforms in order to promote its bid for European Union membership. The December crackdown did not halt the protest, by over 400 inmates and sympathisers, which claimed its 26th victim on Friday. The Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD) said 22-year-old Zehra Kulaksiz, whose uncle was in jail, died on the 223rd day of her hunger strike. She died in an Istanbul house where her 19-year-old sister Canan starved to death in April on her 137th day without food. The strike is in protest at new "F-type" prisons consisting of cells holding a maximum of three people, in contrast to existing jails composed of large dormitories designed for up to 60 people. Prisoners and human rights groups say confinement in small units would alienate inmates from fellow prisoners and leave them more vulnerable to torture by prison officials. Despite the mounting death toll and international pressure, the government has refused to back down on the introduction of the new prisons.Ankara maintains the packed dormitories are the main factor behind frequent riots and hostage-taking incidents in its unruly jails. Since the December crackdown over 1,000 inmates have been transferred to F-type prisons despite a government pledge that the new jails would not become operational until a social consensus has been reached on their introduction. Ankara recently adopted a series of laws to improve jail conditions but the moves have been brushed aside by rights activists and civic groups as insufficient. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk In Support of the Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Struggle in Turkey http://www.ozgurluk.org _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
