From: "reg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 20:08:47 -0000 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Peoples War] 42nd Hunger Striker Dies in Turkey FORTY-SECOND HUNGER STRIKER DIES IN TURKISH JAIL Thousands took part in a march and rally Saturday in Dublin to highlight the plight of political prisoners on hunger strike in Turkey. The hunger strike, which began last October, has claimed 42 lives. More than a thousand prisoners have been on strike protesting prison conditions and in particular the "F-type" isolation cells in place since 1996. In the spirit of internationalism the following statement was released by Irish National Liberation Army prisoners, "Friends and comrades, people of Ireland, Let us first say that we are proud beyond measure that our words are being brought to you by the son of Comrade Volunteer Mickey Devine on this the twentieth anniversary of his death. "Big Red" Mickey Devine was the last of our hunger strikers to die. He was not the last hunger striker to die. In Turkey today, over 600, men, women, prisoners, prisoners family members and friends, are dying. They are dying in prisons, they are dying in their own homes and they are dying in Death Fast Houses. They are dying as we speak. There are two that we know of, who are now entering the critical stages of the Death Fast. Resit Sari and Fatma Sener will soon die, like so many of their comrades have died in the months and weeks since October 20th 2000. These are and were real people. Their 2000 comrades imprisoned by the Turkish state are real people too. They live, they love and they struggle for an idea. That idea is, that we all have value. That people should be free. Think about that." Note: The Irish National Liberation Army was established in 1975. This group initially used the name People's Liberation Army (PLA) before adopting the name INLA. At the time it was formed the INLA was considered to be the military wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP). The aim of the INLA, and the IRSP, is the re- unification of Ireland and the creation of a revolutionary socialist republic. Over the weekend a 39 year old woman was the latest to die. Hulya Simsek, whose incarcerated brother is also on hunger strike, died in a house in Istanbul after 285 days without food. She had been living in the house with a number of other hunger strikers who are protesting against the Turkish authorities oppression of political prisoners. She was one of the many relatives and supporters who have joined the hunger strike taking place in the prisons. It is reported that conditions are deteriorating inside the F-type prisons and that brutality has become commonplace. Last December police raids were carried out on the prisons and thirty prisoners died in a government effort to end the resistance. A subsequent report on the massacre by forensic pathologists, which became public last month, found that paramilitary police used huge quantities of tear gas and nerve gas at Bayrampasa prison in Istanbul, where 12 inmates died. Six women in one ward were burnt to death after the gas caught fire. Other prisoners were killed by gunfire from surrounding buildings. The report suggests that, contrary to government claims, there was no gunfire from the prisoners themselves. International pressure must be put on the government of Turkey to end the abuse of human rights which routinely take place in Turkish prisons. AND KURDS� In a not so completely unrelated matter, Turkish police detained 21 members of Turkey's only legal Kurdish Party, the People's Democracy Party (HADEP), and attacked other demonstrators with batons Friday when they attempted to protest against the arrests of thousands of Kurds the previous weekend during World Peace Day, local officials said. The mass arrests at that time of Kurdish activists was an attempt to keep them from attending a mass rally in Ankara. Kurds were arrested as they boarded buses in various cities and roadblocks were set up around the capital. Although the rally in Ankara was canceled thousands of supporters staged protests there and in other cities anyway. At Diyarbakir in the south-east, the police action led to violent clashes in which several people were hurt. In Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city, police fired tear gas grenades and chased away groups of about 2,000 who had gathered to demonstrate in a suburb. Sources: The Kurdistan Observer, BBC, Guardian (London), khilafah.com, Irish Times, Irish National Liberation Army Prisoners, Portlaoise, Irish Republican Bulletin Board, Press Agency Ozgurluk The Oread Daily provides daily (Monday-Friday) progressive, left, anti-racist, anarchist, commie, activist, environmental, Marxist, revolutionary, etc. news and information from around the US and around the world. The Oread Daily was a mimeographed sheet that came out first in the summer of 1970 in Lawrence, Kansas. It was irreverent, radical, spicy, revolutionary et. al. Now, three decades later it returns. To view the entire Oread Daily, please visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OreadDaily _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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