Turkey: Hunger strike in Erzurum penitentiary

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

May 30 19989

  Hunger strike in Erzurum penitentiary
  _________________________________________________________________

Ankara - Turkish Daily News

An estimated 450 inmates in the Erzurum E-type penitentiary serving
jail time for different terrorist activities have started a rotating
hunger strike.

The inmates began the hunger strike on Thursday on grounds of "their
rights being violated due to the ban on relations between wards, the
authorities expecting visitors to show ID cards, and frisking," as
well as to protest the latest operation against separatist terrorists
by security forces, the Anatolia news agency reported penitentiary
officials as saying.

If the restrictions are not lifted and if a compromise is not reached,
the inmates will turn their rotating hunger strike into a fast which
will continue to the point of death.

Penitentiary officials said that the activists are trying to draw the
public's attention, the hunger strike is only a front. "They have
stocked food for days. The hunger strike is an excuse, their aim
consistently being to create public confusion," asserted officials.

-- 
Press Agency Ozgurluk
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