---------- From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2000 15:14:05 +0100 Wounded Turkish prisoners 'beaten' December 30, 2000 Web posted at: 2235 GMT ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Riot-injured prisoners in Turkey are not receiving treatment for bullet wounds and other injuries and are also being beaten, their relatives have said. Some inmates are beaten twice a day with truncheons during roll call, relatives said on Saturday after visiting the prisons. The Turkish Justice Ministry denied the mistreatment, but said it had opened an investigation into the claims. Over the past 10 days, more than 1,000 prisoners, mostly from militant leftist groups, have been transferred from large, dormitory-style wards to new prisons with small cells. Hundreds of inmates have staged a 2-month-long hunger strike to protest the transfers to cells, which they said would make them more vulnerable to abuse. Troops stormed prisons nationwide to break up the strike, resulting in four days of clashes. Two soldiers were killed and 29 inmates died, many from setting themselves on fire. Huseyin Diri said his brother, imprisoned near the northwestern Turkish city of Izmit, told of being beaten every morning for refusing to sing the national anthem. "When he refused, or if he didn't stand up when the guard walked in, they started beating him," Diri said. He said his brother's face was covered with bruises and that he had to be carried into a visiting room. Yusuf Saglam said his 32-year-old son, on trial for being a member of an armed leftist group, couldn't use an arm because of a bullet wound sustained during the clashes. "He couldn't show me the wound because he couldn't take off his shirt," he said. His son said he was refused treatment. New York-based Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said they were sending delegations to Turkey to investigate the claims. "There are people with broken arms and legs or burns who are not being treated," said Ismail Boyraz of Turkey's Human Rights Association. The Justice Ministry insisted that all those injured were treated, and any visible wounds were sustained during the clashes, not in prison. "No prisoner had witnessed torture or ill-treatment," the ministry said in a statement on Saturday, according to the Anatolia news agency. Human rights groups have long claimed that prisoners in Turkey suffer torture, with leftists and Kurds singled out for abuse. Jonathan Sugden of Human Rights Watch said his group was "very concerned by the reports of ill-treatment." "It seems that prisoners were right in fearing isolation," he said. Meanwhile, nearly 90 inmates still staging a hunger strike are suffering ill health. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk In Support of the Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Struggle in Turkey http://www.ozgurluk.org DHKC: http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc
