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| Death Toll at 20 in Turkish Prison |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/07/2001 |
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The death toll in Turkey's month-long prison hunger strike reached 20 this week as another inamte starved to death protesting a system that leftist inmates say leaves them isolated and vulnerable. Fatma Hulya Tumran, convicted as a member of an extreme leftist group, died in an Ankara hospital on Saturday after being moved from Ulucanlar jail in the capital. Sedat Karakurt, a 25-year-old prisoner, died in a hospital in the northwest city of Edirne early last week after an intermittent hunger strike lasting 177 days, Turkey's Human Rights Association said. Erdogan Guler, 29, died at his home in the Aegean port city of Izmir. Guler was not a prisoner but had been on a sympathy hunger strike for 159 days, said Saban Dayanan, an official at the Human Rights Association. Some 250 inmates and many of their relatives have been fasting for months to protest their transfer from large wards to new prisons where cells house one or three inmates. The prisoners say the new system leaves them vulnerable to beatings from guards. In December, the government moved to break up the old prison system, where leftist, Kurdish and Islamic inmates often ran their wards like indoctrination centers. The transfer sparked clashes that left 30 inmates and two soldiers dead. Last week, Amnesty International called on Turkey to end the isolation and abuse of prisoners, and allow them 'to associate widely with each other for at least several hours each day.'' Turkey's government submitted two draft laws to parliament recently, opening prisons to outside observers and allowing inmates to take part in some collective activities. Most hunger strikers are continuing their protest, saying the government's promises don't go far enough. |
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