From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2001 13:29:13 +0200 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Ozgurluk] Irisch Prisoners Support Turkish Hungerstrike Irisch World Online http://www.theirishworld.com/pages/news003.html Prisoners support Turkish hunger strike By Tom Griffin Nine INLA prisoners in Portlaoise Prison in the Republic began a five-day fast at midnight last Sunday in support of Turkish prisoners on hunger strike over conditions in the country's new F-type jails. The INLA hunger strike is led by Dessie O'Hare, serving life in the jail for the kidnapping and torture of Dublin dentist John O'Grady. In a statement from Portlaoise on Monday, O'Hare called for the Irish government to put pressure on Turkey. "The Irish nation, rightly or wrongly, occupy a central and key position at the heart of the EU. As such it is incumbent on them to show leadership and compassion in the face of Turkey's blatant disregard for human rights," he said. "The INLA and other political prisoners in Portlaoise feel a deep affinity with our comrades in the DKHP-C, TIAD and TIKB who are giving their lives so valiantly in the struggle against the isolation F-type prisons," he added. "This is just a token fast but we hope to draw the public's attention to this and through their attention force the Free State government to act. As the nation who invented the death fast as a political weapon, we should do all we can to see political prisoners get fair treatment, wherever they are held for their beliefs." The INLA's political wing, the IRSP, this week launched a poster campaign aimed at pressurising Turkey by persuading travel agents and holiday-makers to boycott the country. "The Turkish state suffers from chronic hyper-inflation and is very much dependent on its relationship with its EU neighbours," the party's overseas spokesman, Terry Harkin, said. "It is in desperate need of hard currency brought in by holiday-makers from Ireland and other EU countries." Mr Harkin recently visited several Turkish hunger strikers in Istanbul, two of whom have since died. "I've met those involved in the death fasts and seen the determination on their faces as they die," he said. "We as a nation should not spend a shilling on this pariah state until they scrap the F-types and, more than this, the Free State government should be putting untold pressure on the Turks to stand up to their military and end this before any more lives are lost." Twenty-nine Turkish prisoners and sympathisers have died on hunger strike since the protests began in October. Another 30 were killed in December when the Turkish army stormed the prisons in an attempt to end the hunger strikes. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk In Support of the Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Struggle in Turkey http://www.ozgurluk.org _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
