From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 10:33:33 +0100 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: "[Ozgurluk.Org]" TDN on ongoing hungerstrike/torture in Turkish prisons 1 February 2001, Copyright © Turkish Daily News While the days in the death fasts are counted in the hundreds, the reign of silence continues It has been stated that the situation of eight people at the Edirne, Kandira and Sincan F type prisons and that of another eight people at the Ataturk Egitim and Ankara Numune Hospitals is crucial FP deputy Bekaroglu said "The government tries to keep the issue at a distance from the public by exerting pressure" Inci Hekimoglu Istanbul - Turkish Daily News While the deep silence over the death fasts, which began in protest to the F-type prisons and that have entered their 104th day continues, it has been stated that the condition of 16 prisoners is grave. Ismet Unver, Kadir Kaya, Ayhan Koc and Recep Cingitas are at the Edirne Prison, Hulya Tumgan and Sevinc Sahingoz at the Ankara Numune Hospital, Mesut Avci, Abdullah Bozdag, Serhat Karadumanli, Baris Yildirim and Umit KHasan Pinar at the Kandira Prison and Murat Kirsay at the Sincan prison. The ministry is insisting Mehmet Bekaroglu, member of the parliamentary human rights commission and member of the Virtue Party (FP), said that the ministry of justice followed a policy of silencing and intimidating people, and that it tried to focus the attention of the public on other issues. Bekaroglu said, "I wrote a letter to Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and said that people cannot be left to their fates and a solution should be sought. Now I am contacting Democratic Left Party (DSP) members and trying to involve them in a solution." Bekaroglu also said that there had been some demands from the families of prisoners which involved the restoration of F-type prisons in a way that would prevent isolation, the treatment of the injured, and the formation of monitoring committees comprised of members of civic associations. Noting that despite the reasonable demands of the prisoners, t and insisted that the prisoners had to leave the death fast first, Bekaroglu said the following: "They try to silence everyone who opposes the F-type prison project. Investigations are started about a number of civic associations including the Human Rights Association (IHD), the prison officers' union and the Istanbul bar." Custody for the disabled child According to the families of the prisoners, the pre-condition for ending the death fast is; 'an end to isolation,' and a 'discussion can ensue only afterwards.' It is also stated that the meetings could not start before the arrested and convicted individuals came together and could make joint decisions. According to the information obtained from the relatives of the prisoners in F-type prisons, it is said that violent events are continuing in prisons and that even some of the relatives who had come to see the prisoners had been beaten. It is also noted that the people who are beaten and injured during the operations are not treated. Besides the claims of torture and isolation, it is also pointed out that Hatice Saklayici, who had gone to Manisa Prison to visit her daughter, and Eren Saklayici, who is autistic, were detained and that the families who went to visit their children in the same prison were beaten en masse. Statement by the Ankara Chamber of Physicians Following the prison operations on Dec.14, 2000, some of the prisoners asked to be brought to the Ankara Numune Hospital and received permission from the ministry of justice and the public prosecutor. Meantime, the Ankara Chamber of Physicians organized a total of 14 visits to the Ankara Ulucanlar, Cankiri E-type, Sincan F-type and Ankara Numune Hospital. The Chamber made its views regarding the death fasts public for the first time before the operations, on Dec. 14, 2000. It paid three visits to the Sincan F-type prison and eight to the Ankara Numune Hospital, and the last visit took place on Jan. 17, 2001. Here are the finds from the visits of the Chamber of Physicians to the prisons and the Ankara hospital: 1- There is total isolation in the cells designed for one person or three people. The meetings with lawyers and the families, which are the most important way of communication for the prisoners, is limited; and if the prisoners are somehow punished, they are barred from seeing their families 2- There is difficulty in the provision of the medicine and medical material that is recommended by the doctors or the prison administration 3- There are a number of prisoners who took part in the death fasts in 1996. Seven individuals among this group accepted treatment, and the following symptoms were observed: memory lapses reminiscent of the Korsakoff syndrome, amnesiac psychosis, cerebral imbalance, ataxia and limitation in eye movement. It has also been found out that one of the prisoners had been treated for psychosis before. Many of them have fractures and internal bleeding in the head, body and joints, they suffer from breathing and speech difficulties resulting from exposure to gas, and some of them suffer from such strong bleeding in the eyes that they are unable to open them. Some people suffer from fractures and one finger of one person was amputated. 4- Most of them have scars in the head that have not been sutured, there are abrasions and bleedings and lesion in the wrist resulting from long use of handcuffs and there are lesions in the eyes. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk In Support of the Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Struggle in Turkey http://www.ozgurluk.org DHKC: http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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