Reuters: Austria steps up border checks to control Kurds

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

Austria steps up border checks to control Kurds 
07:06 a.m. Nov 17, 1998 Eastern 

VIENNA, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Austria tightened controls on its border
with Germany on Tuesday as Kurds from across Europe travelled to Rome
via Austria to demonstrate in support of detained Kurdish guerrilla
chief Abdullah Ocalan.

Traffic crossing the border, where controls were abolished last
December on Austria's accession to the Schengen open border area,
would be subject to spot checks, said a spokesman for the Tyrolean
police.

Three buses with around 200 Kurds seeking to enter Italy at the
Tyrolian Brenner border crossing without valid passports were sent
back to Germany.

Another three buses with Kurds holding legal travel documents were
allowed to travel on to Rome, the spokesman said.

Since Friday between 1,000 and 1,500 Kurds resident in Austria have
travelled to Italy to take part in demonstrations in support of
Ocalan, a spokesman for the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan
said in Vienna.

In addition, some 50 Kurds had launched a hunger strike in Vienna on
Sunday to back the protests, the spokesman said.

Ocalan, the founder of the the leftist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),
has led a lengthy struggle against Turkish authorities for Kurdish
self-rule in which thousands have been killed.

He was arrested trying to enter Italy on a false passport. Turkey is
demanding his extradition.

-- 
Press Agency Ozgurluk
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