(Fowarded) 9 May 2001 Hunger Strike Commemoration Committee (HSCOM) Press Release: Letter of Protest to Turkish Embassy in London This afternoon, a brother of Hunger Striker Patsy O Hara handed in a letter of protest to the Turkish Embassy in London. Patsy O Hara was the leader of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in Long Kesh and was the fourth Volunteer to die on the 1981 hunger strike protest. Tony O Hara himself is a former Political Prisoner, having spent nearly four and a half years in Solitary confinement with only a Blanket to clothe him. Tony was accompanied by several ex-POWs and by other members of Hunger Striker families. They are at this time holding a protest for all political prisoners. Tony said: "This month marks the 20th anniversary of the H Block Hunger Strike, on which 10 Irishmen died in an attempt to end the Criminalisation policy imposed on them by the British government. Ironically, there are still 41 prisoners undergoing the same criminalisation attempts, two decades after the ten died. I have come to this embassy today in Solidarity with the Turkish people who have be undergoing imprisonment, torture and murder in the various Turkish prisons. As Turkey prepares to enter the EEC, through my actions today I wish to highlight the numerous atrocities inflicted on the people of that country by the same government that wishes to join this confederation. "We ask you the Government of Turkey to move to end the Deaths on Hunger Strike of the men and women whom you are detaining in various prisons in your country - a hunger strike that has already led to 20 deaths. The deaths of these men and women, who are protesting against the transfer of prisoners from large wards to the cramped conditions of one to three-inmate cells in F-type prisons, is on your hands. "We ask this from a humanitarian basis, as it is a terrible thing that people must go to such lengths to die on Hunger Strike, and this amid the torture, deprivations and deaths already inflicted on them as defenceless hostages under incarceration. "In this modern world, such actions are not acceptable, and are viewed as crimes against humanity. We ask you to act now before any more lives are lost due to your intransigence and barbarity. The world is watching.." Tony O Hara International Coordinator [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dawn-Michele Gould Press Relations Officer [EMAIL PROTECTED] Steve Donnolly North American Coordinator [EMAIL PROTECTED] "We must take no steps backward, our steps must be onward, for if we don't, the martyrs that died for you, for me, for this country will haunt us forever" ----M�ire Drumm
