From: "STEVE KACZYNSKI" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (I would be grateful if anyone in the Birmingham-Coventry area on this list who has local media/labour movement/left-wing contacts could pass this press release on to them, because that area will be the next major stop for the marchers. In the meantime I will be trying to track down the local media there on the Internet, but I could use some help. Steve Kaczynski.) IKM PRESS RELEASE: LIVERPOOL-LONDON MARCH AGAINST TORTURE IN THE PRISONS OF TURKEY! On December 19-22, 2000 in Turkey, thousands of police and soldiers launched an attack against political prisoners in 20 jails across the country in order to force them into new prisons with isolation cells. Many political prisoners had been on hunger strikes and Death Fasts against the isolation prisons before the attack; the government had signaled its plans to open the new prisons well in advance. The prisoners oppose the new isolation prisons because in Turkey, there have been several massacres by guards of political prisoners even in the old prisons where isolation was not practised. The prisoners feel that ill-treatment, torture and murder by guards will be much easier in the new prisons. Twenty-eight prisoners were killed in the December attack or died subsequently. Hundreds of other prisoners were forced into the isolation prisons where torture and brutality are the order of the day - precisely what they and their families and supporters had feared before the December attack. Hunger strikes and Death Fasts are still going on in the new prisons, although the guards are trying to break the prisoners with torture and the authorities are attempting forced feeding. There have been many protests in Turkey itself (where there have been mass arrests and closure of human rights institutions) and in European countries, including the occupation of offices, demonstrations and marches. The protest actions and solidarity are continuing. On Wednesday February 21, a march set off from Liverpool in order to carry the message of what is going on in the prisons of Turkey to the public in England and Britain as a whole. The march reached Manchester, and democratic institutions and organisations such as the trade union UNISON were visited by the marchers. The marchers are currently in Macclesfield and in the following days they will be heading towards the Midlands. The march will end in London near the House of Commons - the expected day of arrival there is March 4 or 5. Further information can be obtained by contacting IKM (Committee for Struggle Against Torture Through Isolation) on 0207 254 1266 or e-mailing [EMAIL PROTECTED] A mobile phone number with the marchers is 07799 473577. Stop the torture in the prisons of Turkey! Close the isolation prisons! Free the political prisoners! _________________________________________________________________________
