From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 21:02:41 +0200
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Ozgurluk] AFP: Death toll in Turkish hunger strike hits 31
ANKARA, Aug 14 (AFP) - A 10-month hunger strike to protest at
jail reforms in Turkey claimed its 31st victim on Tuesday, the dead
man's lawyer told AFP.
Osman Osmanagaoglu, 44, died in Istanbul on the 299th day of his
fast, two months after he was granted a six-month temporary release
due to his deteriorating health, lawyer Behic Asci said.
Osmanagaoglu, who was sentenced to jail for belonging to the
far-left underground People's Revolutionary Liberation Front
(DHKP-C), had spent 11 years in jail.
He perished in a house in the Kucuk Armutlu district of
Istanbul, where he had continued to fast with several other
protestors.
The hunger strikers are taking sugared water and vitamins to
prolong their protest, which began last October against the
introduction of new prisons, where cells for a maximum of three
people have replaced large dormitories for up to 60 inmates.
Prisoners and human rights activists claim that confinement in
smaller units will alienate inmates from fellow prisoners and leave
them more vulnerable to mistreatment and torture.
But the government has categorically refused to return to the
dormitory system, arguing that the packed compounds were the main
factor behind frequent riots and hostage-taking in its unruly
jails.
Most of the 31 hunger strikers who have died were prisoners,
although several former prisoners and inmates' relatives have also
starved themselves to death in solidarity.
Despite the mounting death toll and international pressure, the
government is refusing to hold talks with strikers to end the
protest.
Ankara recently adopted a series of laws in a bid to meet
prisoner demands. These allow prisoners to use common recreational
areas, as well as introducing special judges to deal with prisoner
complaints and civic commissions to inspect prison conditions.
But the legislation has failed to satisfy the protestors.
More than 1,000 prisoners have been transferred to the new jails
since last December, when security forces raided 20 prisons across
Turkey to break the hunger strike.
The four-day crackdown left 30 prisoners and two paramilitary
police officers dead but failed to end the strike.
Human rights groups say some 200 inmates are still refusing
food.
--
Press Agency Ozgurluk
In Support of the Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Struggle in Turkey
http://www.ozgurluk.org
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