14 May 2001 Hunger Strike Commemoration Committee (HSCOM) Press Release: Crimes Against Humanity There are 250 prisoners presently on Hunger Strike in various Turkish gaols. Many of these prisoners are incarcerated simply because they belong to "banned leftist groups". All have been subjected to torture and deprivation. Relatives of these prisoners have also joined the Hunger Strike bringing the total to 800. The Hunger Strike began as a protest by political prisoners against their transfer from large, dormitory-style prison wards to new maximum security prisons with one or three-person cells (F-type cells). Clashes broke out in December when security forces assaulted a number of prisons with bulldozers and sledgehammers. They made holes in the prison roofs and tossed fire grenades down on the prisoners below, burning six female inmates to death and injuring hundreds of others. A total of 28 prisoners were murdered in these assaults. The present Hunger Strike has claimed 22 lives to date. The prisoners and their relatives plan to continue the fast until the government meets the strikers demands for 18-person wards and the abolition of so-called 'anti-terror' laws. We call on the European Union to refuse entry to Turkey until these crimes against humanity are resolved. We call on the government of Turkey to immediately open dialogue with the protesting prisoners in a bid to prevent more deaths and to end the suffering of these people by establishing a humane prison regime. 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
