From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2001 16:05:34 +0200 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Ozgurluk] Mainstream news on the Hungerstrike in Turkey/Slaughter of prisoners AFP - Turkish prison hunger strike claims 27th victim ANKARA A long-running hunger-strike over controversial prison reforms in Turkey has claimed another victim, bringing to 27 the death toll from the protest, a human rights activist said Thursday. Mahmut Gokhan Ozocak, a prisoner on conditional release for health reasons, died in the western Turkish city of Izmir late Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the Turkish Human Rights Association, Turkey's main human rights watchdog, told AFP. Ozocak,41, began fasting in October 26 last year while he was serving time in Buca prison in western Turkey for membership of an illegal left-wing organization, the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), which Ankara accuses of masterminding the hunger strike, she added. He was hospitalized when his condition deteriorated but pursued his fast even after being granted a six-month conditional release in May, she said. His death means that 21 inmates, five relatives of prisoners who joined the strike in solidarity and one former inmate have starved themselves to death since March.The hunger strike, launched in October by mainly left-wing inmates, is in protest at new jails, commonly known as "F-type" prisons, with cells designed to hold a maximum of three people, in contrast to existing jails which have large dormitories for up to 60 people. The prisoners and human rights activists claim that confinement in smaller units would alienate inmates from fellow prisoners and leave them more vulnerable to ill-treatment and torture by prison staff. Despite the mounting death toll and international pressure, the government has refused to back down on the introduction of the new prisons. Ankara maintains that packed dormitories are the main factor behind frequent riots and hostage-taking incidents in its unruly jails. In December, thousands of paramilitary troops raided scores of prisons across the country in a bid to break the hunger strike during a four-day crackdown which left 30 prisoners and two soldiers dead. The controversial operation has recently come under question with official pathologists' reports contradicting the government's account of how the deaths occurred during the raids, which saw security forces demolishing prison walls to enter prisoners' compounds and using tear gas to subdue those who resisted. Since the raids, more than 1,000 inmates have been transferred to F-type prisons despite a government pledge that the new jails would not become operational until a social consensus had been reached on their introduction. The government recently adopted a series of laws to improve conditions for inmates, but the moves have been brushed aside by rights activists and civic groups as inadequate. The prison hunger strike has placed Turkey's bleak human rights record in the international spotlight at a time when the country needs to make far-reaching democratic reforms in order to promote its bid for European Union membership. AFP - Rights groups urge Turkey to shed light on controversial jail raid ANKARA Four influential Turkish human rights groups urged the government Wednesday to give full, exact details on a deadly paramilitary crackdown against hunger-striking prisoners and to launch an investigation into anyone found at fault. The appeal was made in a joint statement by the Turkish Human Rights Association, the Turkish Union of Medical Doctors, the Turkish Human Rights Foundation and the Association of Contemporary lawyers. The statement came in the wake of official pathologists' reports, widely published in the national press, that contradicted a government account of the December raids on scores of prisons accross the country, in which 30 inmates and two soldiers were killed. "We demand that the truth be revealed to the public, investigations be immediately launched against those responsible and that no one be granted judicial immunity," the statement said. The rights groups also called on Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk to order investigations at once or to resign if he cannot or is unwilling to do so. The controversial dawn jail raids were launched in a bid to end a hunger strike begun in October by mainly left-wing inmates protesting at the introduction of new, high security jails. But the four-day operation failed to halt the protest, which is still ongoing and has claimed 26 lives so far. According to the forensic pathologists' report, six of the inmates were killed in an Istanbul jail by police using excessive quantities of tear and nerve gas. This contradicts government claims that five of the women set fire to themselves and that a sixth was suffocated by smoke. Prisoners did not fire at security forces, as the government had claimed in justification of its heavy-handed assault, the report said, adding that the shots had been fired from outside the jail. In a statement Tuesday, the justice and interior ministries criticized the publication of the report in the press as meddling in an ongoing judicial process. The prisoners' hunger strike is in protest at new "F-type" prisons, which consist of cells holding a maximum of three people, in contrast to existing jails with large dormitories for up to 60 people. Prisoners and human rights activists claim that confinement in smaller units would alienate inmates from fellow prisoners and leave them more vulnerable to ill-treatment and torture by prison officials. Despite the mounting death toll from the protests and international pressure, the government has refused to back down on the introduction of the new prisons on the grounds that the packed dormitories are the main factor behind frequent riots and hostage-taking incidents in its unruly jails. Ankara recently adopted a series of laws to improve jail conditions but the moves have been brushed aside by rights activists and civic groups as insufficient. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk In Support of the Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Struggle in Turkey http://www.ozgurluk.org _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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