Turkey: Two Kurds die in custody after police crackdown

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

Two Kurds die in custody after police crackdown 
11:07 a.m. Nov 21, 1998 Eastern 

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Two Kurds died in police
custody after being detained in a nationwide crackdown on Turkey's
main legal Kurdish party, security officials said on Saturday.

Officials in the main southeastern city of Diyarbakir said 18-year-old
Halit Cakir had died of a heart attack shortly after being detained by
police in the local offices of the People's Democracy Party (HADEP).

Separately, the governor of Kocaeli in western Turkey said 46-year-old
Metin Yurtsever died overnight in police custody, Anatolian news
agency reported.

Turkish officials denied any wrongdoing, but HADEP officials said
police were at fault in the death of both men.

``The man in Kocaeli died after being beaten by nationalist
protesters, while the man in Diyarbakir died after being tortured in
police custody,'' a HADEP official in Istanbul told Reuters.

Security forces have detained at least 600 HADEP supporters in a week
of raids sparked by the arrest of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan
in Italy last week.

Initial Turkish elation at the arrest of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
chief Ocalan in Rome turned to anger after Italy dismissed Turkish
demands to extradite him.

Far right groups chanting anti-PKK slogans have staged violent
protests outside the offices of HADEP and the Human Rights
Association, both of which advocate a peaceful solution to the
guerrilla conflict in southeast Turkey.

Turkey holds Ocalan and his PKK responsible for the deaths of more
than 29,000 people in 14 years of conflict in the mainly Kurdish
southeast, where the PKK seeks self-rule.

-- 
Press Agency Ozgurluk
For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan!
Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org                          
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