Rights group says many Kurds on hun

[kurdeng at aps.nl]

Subject: Rights group says many Kurds on hunger strike


     GENEVA (Reuter) - An international human rights group said
Thursday that thousands of Kurdish rebel prisoners had joined a
three-week-old hunger strike at some 30 prisons across Turkey.
     The International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) also
said a Turkish journalist who was arrested while serving as
interpreter for an FIDH investigative mission had been released.
     The Paris-based group sent a team to Turkey on July 31-Aug.
6 to check on prisoners on a hunger strike that began on July
14.
     FIDH said it had been denied access to jails in Istanbul and
Diyarbakir. Members of the mission were, however, able to
interview relatives and lawyers of detainees.
     Members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is
fighting an 11-year-old battle for independence or autonomy in
southeast Turkey, are striking to press for talks to end the
conflict. They take turns refusing food for 10 days in a row.
     ``Currently in Turkey a hunger strike is going on in 30
prisons across the country, involving more than 10,000 political
detainees,'' Etienne Jaudel, a French lawyer who headed the
mission, told a news briefing in Geneva.
     ``There is what I would not hesitate to describe as an
atmosphere of police terror which reigns over the country and
particularly the southeast,'' he added.
     ``Finally, our interpreter was arrested in front of our
eyes,'' said Jaudel, a former secretary-general of the FIDH.
     Jakub Karademir, a member of the Turkish Human Rights
Association, was released on Aug. 8 after being held for three
days by police near Diyarbakir, according to FIDH.
     ``It is inadmissible that a man who was an integral part of
an international mission of inquiry be arrested,'' Jaudel said.
``We await his testimony which will be included in our report.''
     FIDH said it was lobbying the U.N. Sub-Commission for Human
Rights to put Turkey on its list of countries to be formally
scrutinised next year.
     It will submit a resolution regarding Turkey Friday to be
voted on by the 26-member body which is holding its annual
meeting in Geneva.
     ``We would be satisfied if we succeed in getting Turkey on
the agenda for next year. For us, it is an aberration that
Turkey is not on it,'' a spokesman told Reuters.


By Claire Springett

ATHENS, Aug 10 (Reuter) - Kurdish rebels said on Thursday a Turkish report
urging better treatment for the country's 10 million Kurds was probably a sop
by Ankara to the European Union in its efforts to win a customs pact.

A Kurdish spokesman told Reuters the report, made public last week by an
influential Turkish business grouping, was unlikely to spur reforms that would
end the Kurds' 11-year-old secessionist struggle.

"Businessmen are saying they're proposing a reform package, which would be an
argument for the government to give the EU to ease customs union," Adar Serket,
a member of the political wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), told
Reuters.

Serket, representing the ERNK political group, was speaking after a news
conference to announce the end of a hunger strike by Kurds in Athens protesting
against Ankara's refusal to grant Kurds autonomy, and ERNK's illegal status in
Germany. "The proposals probably aim to cover (military) operations and the
genocide going on, and act as a concession," he said.

The report, compiled by an academic team headed by Professor Dogu Ergil of
Ankara University, was commissioned by the Union of Chambers and Trade Bourses,
whose chairman, Yalim Erez, is close to Prime Minister Tansu Ciller. It said
support for the PKK would weaken if Ankara heeded Kurds' social and economic
grievances and tolerated pro-Kurdish sentiments. International organisations
have criticised Turkey's record on human rights.

"We reject this as a step towards a solution. There are some people in
business, even in the government and the military, who want a political
solution, but they are very weak," Serket said. "Any solution has to be
discussed with the military, the only real political power in Turkey."

The report included a rare canvas of more than 1,200 Kurds, most of whom said
they would choose autonomy or being part of a federation if they could change
Turkey's political structure. More than 17,500 people have been killed in the
PKK's fight for independence or autonomy.

Many conservative politicians, journalists and security officials have
condemned the report's findings. The opposition has suggested it was
influenced by Ciller to pave the way for democratic reforms. Her office has
denied this.

A Turkish special court is investigating the report with an eye to prosecution
under a tough anti-terror law, a court prosecutor in Ankara told Reuters on
Wednesday.

ANKARA, Aug 10 (Reuter) - These were the leading stories in the Turkish press
on Thursday.

MILLIYET

- Prime Minister Tansu Ciller compares Islamist Welfare Party (RP) to
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebel group.

CUMHURIYET

- Ciller compares RP to separatist PKK for trying to split Turkey into
"believers" and "non-believers."

YENI POLITIKA

- RP hands Kurdish hunger strikers in its Istanbul provincial headquarters
over to police.


---
 * Origin: APS Amsterdam (aps.nl), bbs +31-20-6842147 (16:31/2.0)