From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2001 05:43:39 +0200 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Ozgurluk] AP: Turkish parties call for minister's prosecution over hunger strike Turkish parties call for minister's prosecution over hunger strike deaths The Associated Press 8/18/01 5:50 PM ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Kurdish and left-wing parties called Saturday for the prosecution of Turkey's justice minister over a hunger strike that has killed 31 prisoners and their relatives. Party members holding photographs of the dead presented a petition demanding that prosecutors bring charges against Hikmet Sami Turk for "causing the death" of the prisoners. The petitioners were members of the small left-wing Laborers' and Freedom and Democracy parties and the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party. None of the three is represented in the 550-seat parliament. Some 200 prisoners, mostly members of banned left-wing groups, and their relatives have joined a fasting campaign launched last November to protest the inmates' transfers away from large dormitory-style wards. The inmates were moved to new cells holding one or three inmates, which the prisoners say leave them isolated and vulnerable to abuse by guards. The government says the large wards had effectively become training camps for Kurdish, Islamic and leftist groups. Parliament has passed laws allowing inmates to take part in some group activities and opening jails to civilian inspection. But human rights groups and some European counttries have called for further action to end the strike. -- 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] __________________________________________________
