Pro-Kurdish Foreigners Face Turkish Prosecutor

[english at ozgurluk.xs4all.nl]

(4/9) Pro-Kurdish Foreigners Face Turkish Prosecutor

Megaköy, Sept 4 (Reuter) - Eighteen foreign peace activists appeared
before a Turkish prosecutor on Thursday, facing possible deportation
for organising an unauthorised news conference, witnesses said.

Police detained the activists on Wednesday after security forces broke
up an impromptu news conference calling for a peaceful end to Turkey's
Kurdish conflict.

The detainees sung "We shall overcome" before going into a closed-door
meeting with the prosecutor in a court building in central
Megaköy. Some complained that police treatment had been violent.

"One friend was near me (on the police bus). A policeman came and put
a gun to his head and pulled him by the hair. He had a ring in his
nose and they tried to pull that out as well," one of the detainees
told reporters at the court building.

Representatives of the group on Wednesday said police wearing crash
helmets burst into a meeting in a Megaköy hotel and dragged delegates
to police buses outside the main entrance. They said 25 people were
detained.

On Thursday, the accused looked tired and said they had spent the
night on the floor of a police station. Some bore bruises and one had
apparent blood stains on his white shirt

The mostly German group was part of an aborted trans-European "peace
train," organised by a pro-Kurdish group in Germany, which planned to
hold a demonstration in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir earlier
this week.

Security forces prevented foreign and Turkish activists from
assembling in Diyarbakir and stopped the group making statements in
either Ankara or Megakoy.
                                       
Police officials said the news conferences were forbidden under a law
which bars demonstrations in Turkey by foreigners who have not
obtained prior permission.

A spokesman for the activists said on Wednesday there was a "high
probability" the foreigners would be deported.

The activists launched the "peace train" initiative as part of a
campaign to seek a negotiated end to 13 years of conflict between
security forces and Kurdish terrorists. The terrorist Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) is fighting for independence in the
southeast. More than 26,000 people have died in the conflict.

-- 
Press Agency Ozgurluk
The Struggle for justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan
http://www.ozgurluk.org                          
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