Turkey hunger strikers in hospi

[root at newsdesk.aps.nl]

From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam)
Subject: Re: Turkey hunger strikers in hospital, police arrests
Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl

---- Forwarded from : nyt at nyxfer.blythe.org (NY Transfer News Collective) ------


Turkey hunger strikers in hospital, police arrests

    ISTANBUL, Feb 3 (Reuter) - Ten Turkish prisoners, who have
been on hunger strike for almost five weeks to press for better
conditions, are in hospital, an official of the Human Rights
Association of Turkey (IHD) said on Friday.
    ``We don't know exactly what is wrong with them but there
are other people on the hunger strike who can't even stand up
anymore,'' Dervis Altun, an official with the Izmir branch, told
Reuters.
    The 10 prisoners, sent to hospital on Thursday, are part of
a group of 300 -- many of them Kurds -- living on only water,
salt and sugar to protest against prison conditions, including
alleged torture and routine beatings.
    About 150 of them started their fast on December 21 while
others, including the 10 in hospital, joined later.
    Police later on Friday detained 93 people, including many
women, for illegally occupying a local government building in
Izmir to demand the prisoners' conditions be met, IHD said.
    The prisoners on hunger strike are all sentenced or are on
trial for being members of separatist Kurdish guerrilla groups
or illegal leftist organisations.
    IHD officials said some of the strikers, from two prisons
near the Aegean port city Izmir, could be near death.
    Altun said negotiations among prison officials, the
prisoners' lawyers and others were continuing but there was no
word whether Friday's meeting would resolve differences.
    Negotiations have stalled over demands that doors to the
prisoner wards be open during the day so prisoners can mingle,
and each political faction be allowed to elect its own ward
representative, lawyers said.
    Officials from the justice ministry could not be reached for
comment.
    The prisoners have a list of 50 demands and complaints. They
say they are beaten when taken in and out of cells, special
dietary needs are ignored and there are no curtains or doors to
give them privacy in showers and toilets.
 REUTER
Reut11:24 02-03

Reuter N:Copyright 1995, Reuters News Service

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