A few comments on the Reuters report:
Twelve, not eleven prisoners, died in the 1996 Death Fast. (Hayati Can of
the TKP(ML) died when the protest ended and he was being taken to hospital.)
One hundred prisoners (63 DHKP-C, 31 TKP(ML) and 6 TKIP) are on the Death
Fast now, but nearly 1,000 started the indefinite hunger strike, so
presumably the prisoners described as coming off the hunger strike are those
who are not on the Death Fast.
In 1996, the first prisoner to die, Aygun Ugur, also of the TKP(ML), died on
the 63rd day, but the health of many prisoners is now inferior to what it
was in 1996, especially among longer-term inmates. So there is a danger that
prisoners on the Death Fast will die earlier than last time. A medical
bulletin on the condition of the Death Fasters in Umraniye Prison (an
important pre-trial prison in Turkey) is available and will be translated
into English as soon as possible and placed on this list.
DHKC London Information Bureau
-----------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Louis Proyect" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, November 24, 2000 4:49 PM
Subject: [L-I] Turkish hunger strike
> Hunger Striking Turk Inmates Weaken on 'Death Fast'
>
> By REUTERS
>
> Filed at 11:18 a.m. ET
>
> ANKARA (Reuters) - The health of some Turkish inmates on the 35th day of a
> ``death fast'' hunger strike over planned prison changes has begun to
fail,
> a human rights worker said on Friday.
>
> More than 800 leftist Turkish prisoners across the country have gone on
> hunger strike to protest against government plans to transfer inmates from
> large wards to cells. Forty inmates were beginning to see the symptoms of
> failing health for refusing all food and water after vowing to fast until
> death.
>
> ``The situation is growing worse. Many of the hunger strikers are losing
> their vision and have memory loss,'' said Mesut Cetiner of the Human
Rights
> Association (IHD), which is monitoring the unrest.
>
> Eleven prisoners starved to death in 1996 in a protest against prisoner
> transfers.
>
> The Justice Ministry declined to comment for this story.
>
> The Anatolian news agency said 31 protestors at a jail in the western city
> of Aydin had quit the strike on Thursday.
>
> Another 815 protesters are drinking small amounts of water mixed with
> sugar, Cetiner said.
>
> Some 30 relatives of the protestors have also gone on hunger strike in
> Ankara and the southeastern city of Adana, he said.
>
> ``We're already dead in our homes as we watch our sons die,'' sobbed a
> mother of a hunger striker at an IHD press conference earlier this week.
> ``I gave a healthy son to the system and I want a healthy son to come
home.''
>
> Plans to transfer prisoners to maximum security jailhouses have sparked
> criticism among inmates, families and rights activists. They argue the
> cells, which hold one to three people, will isolate prisoners, leaving
them
> vulnerable to assault.
>
> Turkish police are often accused of torturing those in their custody.
>
> But authorities say the cell system meets European standards and,
moreover,
> will break the influence of organized criminals and political prisoners
who
> recruit and run gangs in the dormitory-style wards with weapons smuggled
in
> from the outside.
>
> The government has proposed a general amnesty that would free tens of
> thousands of felons to ease the overcrowding.
>
> The IHD's Cetiner says the amnesty would not affect the hunger strikers,
> because the legislation excludes those convicted of political crimes.
>
>
> Louis Proyect
> Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/
>
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