Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- Saturday September 1, 4:25 PM Man dies as Turkish police clamp down on Kurdish protestors ANKARA, Sept 1 (AFP) - A man fell to his death when police clamped down on Kurdish protestors planning to attend a banned demonstration, a spokeswoman for the People's Democracy Party (HADEP) said Saturday. The victim, Zeynel Durmus, 19, plunged down the ventilation shaft as he was running away from police on the roof of the HADEP building in Zeytinburnu district, on the European side of Istanbul, she said. A second man, Yasar Ozdurak, also 19, also fell down the shaft, but survived the fall with serious injuries, she added. The incident on late Friday came as riot police moved in to disperse a group of HADEP supporters gathered there to board buses for Ankara, where they planned to join a meeting called by HADEP to mark world peace day, September 1. The group held a brief sit-in demonstration in front of the building to "protest police pressure to prevent them from leaving for Ankara", the spokeswoman said. "When police surrounded them, our friends withdrew into the building, but the police followed them inside," she said. Some 40 people were detained in Zeytinburnu, she added. "In overall, some 1,000 of our supporters have been taken into custody in Istanbul alone," she said. Meanwhile, police beefed up security measures in Ankara on Saturday, setting up check points at entrances to the city and deploying riot police in the downtown area, the Anatolia news agency reported. Some 300 people were detained in the Turkish capital since Saturday morning, it added. Security measures were also boosted in the mainly Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir where a clash between HADEP supporters and police on Friday left 25 people, including 14 police officers, injured. Twenty-eight people were detained in the incidents. Ankara police banned HADEP's peace day march, saying "it was deemed likely to lead to serious public disorder and cause unwanted incidents." HADEP had appealed to a local court to overturn the ban, but the court rejected the appeal. Turkish authorities frequently take action against HADEP, detaining or jailing its members on suspicion of links to armed rebels who waged a 15-year armed campaign against Ankara for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey. HADEP, which campaigns for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question, denies the charges, but nonetheless faces a possible ban for alleged association with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Turkey's normally tense southeast has been relatively calm since September 1999, when the PKK abandoned its armed campaign in favor of seeking a peaceful solution to the conflict following peace calls from its jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email alerts & NEW webcam video instant messaging with Yahoo! Messenger http://im.yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [email protected] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
