|
|
| 27 Dead in Turkish Hunger Strike |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 07/06/2001 |
|
A former prisoner has starved to death, bringing to 27 the number of inmates and relatives who have died in a hunger strike protesting Turkey's new maximum-security prisons, a rights group said Thursday. Mahmut Gokhan Ozocak, a 41-year-old member of the banned Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, died at the home of a friend late Wednesday in the Aegean city of Izmir, Turkey's independent Human Rights Association said. Ozocak began his fast more than six months ago while serving a 14-year sentence for membership in a banned group, the Human Rights Association said. He continued to fast after his release from prison in May. Over 200 inmates and some of their relatives have joined the hunger strike, taking sugared and salted water with vitamins to prolong their fasts. Political prisoners began fasting last autumn to protest their transfer from large, dormitory-style prison wards to new maximum-security prisons with one- or three-person cells. Clashes broke out in December, when security forces transferred inmates to the new prisons, leaving 30 inmates and two soldiers dead. The government has ruled out a return to the old system, arguing that wards of up to 100 prisoners had effectively become training camps for Kurdish, Islamic and leftist groups. Prisoners say the new structure leaves them isolated and vulnerable to beatings from officers. The hunger strikers are demanding larger cells and the lifting of anti-terror laws. 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 countries have called for further action by the government to end the strike. |
advertise
|
privacy policy
|
add URL
|
about us
|
terms/disclaimer
|
contact us
|
join our team
|
help
Comments:
No comments have been posted for this article.
Login to let us know what you think