>Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2000 13:46:57 +0100 >From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Kaiserlautern, January 30th, 2000 > >DEATH FAST, 62nd. Day > >400 people participate in a demonstration in Cologne for the life of the >Turkish prisoner Ilhan Yelkovan who is on a death fast > >Health situation of some prisoners on hunger strike deteriorates further > >No denial concerning the force feeding of Ihsan Ersoy (at present in >Moabit-Prison) > >DEMONSTRATION OF 400 PEOPLE IN COLOGNE - HEALTH SITUATION OF THOSE ON >HUNGER STRIKE > >On Saturday 29-1, 400 people rallied in Cologne for the life of Ilhan >Yelkovan and for the complete removal of the special imprisonment >conditions against him. The demonstration, which started at 12 o'clock, >went on peacefully, despite the presence of a strong police force. The >day before, supporters of Ilhan Yelkovan - now on the 62nd day of his >death fast for pushing through his demands - pointed on his situation by >occupying a tower of the Dome of Cologne. To express the urgency of his >demands, he and two other prisoners went on a hunger and thirst strike >last Friday (the prisoners stopped taking any fluids since that day). >The other prisoners are Mihat Durmus (like Ilhan Y. in the prison of >Holstenglacis) and Ihsan Ersoy who was transferred to the sickbay of the >Moabit Prison on Friday after a longer period of unconsciousness). >According to the latest announcements of the lawyer of Ihsan E., it is now >most likely that he is being force-fed. Because nobody was allowed to >him, because of the weekend, and visits and telephone calls are being >denied, we should, for the time being and until he is able to make a >statement, start from the assumption he is being fed by force. But the >situation is becoming tenser for other prisoners as well. For example, >Ali Ekti (F�hlsb�ttel Prison) - who joined the hunger strike on December >7, 1999, can no longer walk independently. Furthermore he is throwing up >blood for some days now and can no longer take water. > >HIGH COURT HAMBURG KEEPS TO ITS HARSH VIEW: Despite this increasingly >tense situation, the 3rd. Penal Chamber of the High Court Hamburg >confirmed its hard stand regarding the demands of Ilhan Yelkuvan in >another decision on January 28. The court, as it formulates in it >decision, still assumes that a contact between Ilhan Yelkovan and other >Turkish prisoners would endanger the security and order within the prison >institutions because he would propagate the goals of the DHKP-C >(Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front), to which Ilhan Y. and >many of the other prisoners on hunger strike belong. The minister of the >Interior of that time, Kanther, banned the DHKP-C in 1998. Most >generously, he is allowed to keep his views, but he is not allowed to pass >them on. The implementation of this court decision would in practice mean >a ban on political discussions among prisoners, which could be applied, to >other unwanted prisoners at any time. Therefore, Ilhan Y., like the >other prisoners on hunger strike in Germany, Belgium and France, rejects >this court decision. > >BIGGEST PROTEST AGAINST ISOLATION AND SPECIAL IMPRISONMENT CONDITIONS >SINCE THE SEVENTIES: > >Behind the prisoners on hunger strike, 14 in Germany and 12 in France and >Belgium, an international front of protest developed during the last >weeks, organising protest actions and civil disobedience on an almost >daily basis in several West European countries. There were occupations >in London (central office of Amnesty International and the Goethe- >Institute), in Rotterdam (Goethe-Institute as well), Hamburg and Berlin >(SPD central offices), at the border between Germany and Holland in Venlo >(occupation of the highway), Cologne (Dome), et cetera, as well as >numerous manifestations and demonstrations (in Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin, >as well as Vienna and London- in front of the German embassies). >Furthermore, 1300 prisoners of the DHKP-C in Turkey are on a solidarity >hunger strike. Hunger strikes � and death fasts � , waged in a consequent >manner unseen in Europe, have a long and identity giving tradition among >many organisations of the revolutionary left in Turkey. In 1996, 12 >prisoners died in a 69 day lasting death fast, directed against the >forced transportation of individual prisoners to the newly constructed >isolation prisons. Therefore it must be assumed that the Turkish >prisoners here will fight with the same consequence against isolation >detention and special imprisonment conditions. > >SILENCE IN THE GERMAN PRESS: > >Despite the many protests, largely peaceful, neither the bourgeois press >in Germany, nor the major part of the critical press, shows any reaction >regarding this large and internationally carried protest against isolation >and special imprisonment conditions in Western Europe. With concern, we >had to accept that the information service of the German press agency >DPA, OTS-News Aktuell, does not pass on our daily press statements. In >an email message of Friday, January 28, they informed us that they have >no use for our press statements. We vehemently protest against these >methods of the news agency DOA to ignore information that does not fit >the political views of the time. Apparently it must be prevented that >the situation of the political prisoners in Germany becomes an item on >the daily agenda once again. > >STOP THE ISOLATION AND ALL OTHER SPECIAL CONDITIONS AGAINST ILHAN YELKUVAN >AND ALL OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS! > >ACT! > >Trial groups against the DHKP-C trials > > > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
