Turkey: Political Prisons on Hunger Strike -- 31 Dead

TURKISH GOVERNMENT STORMS 20 PRISONS WITH THOUSANDS OF POLITICAL PRISONERS ON HUNGER STRIKE

AT LEAST 31 PRISONERS DEAD, HUNDREDS IN CRITICAL CONDITION AS HUNGER STRIKE CONTINUES, REACHING DAY 83!

MINISTER OF JUSTICE ADMITS THAT ABOUT 1,000 NEW PRISONERS HAVE JOINED HUNGER STRIKE, BRINGING TOTAL TO OVER 2,000!

POLITICAL PRISONERS, MANY INJURED IN THE RAID, MOVED TO ISOLATION CELLS -- CLAIMS OF TORTURE INCREASE!

TURKISH GOVERNMENT BANS ALL CRITICAL COVERAGE, THREATENS PROSECUTION IF NGO's PROTEST -- HUMAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION'S HQ RAIDED AND RANSACKED, MANY BRANCHES ARE CLOSED!

Soldiers drag a beaten up hunger-striker

Articles / Appeals

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Hundreds of Inmates Continue "Death Fast" Despite Raids (12/24 AFP)

Turkey wraps up bloody jail crackdown with 27 dead

LATEST UPDATES IN BOLD

Summary of What Happened:

On December 19th, as the hunger strike by political prisoners in 20 separate Turkish jails reached its 61st day, the Turkish government sent in the military police to forcibly remove inmates to the new prisons where they will be confined to isolation cells for the rest of their sentence. The day before the military intervention, the prisoners had announced that they would resist forced removal in any way they could. The Turkish Human Rights Organization has stated that many of the prisoners were killed while resisting the assault. The prisoners, currently being held incommunicado in isolation cells and in hospitals, are continuing their hunger strike, which has reached day 83. (Not all prisoners are on day 83of the hungerstrike. The hunger strike was started in waves. About 200 of the hunger strikers are over 78 days, and about 50 are over 83 days). Due to the combined effects of military assault and weakened condition due to the hunger strike hundreds of them are in imminent danger of death. Various prisoners have reportedly stated that the military police burnt them with flamethrowers, savagely beat them up and shot at them.

Current Developments:
Lawyers have been given selective access to the political prisoners held in isolation cells -- some prisoners remain inaccessible. Lawyer Filiz Kalayci, who was able to see some of her clients, stated the following: "All those that were on hunger strike are continuing. Many of them are in critical condition. Most of them were injured in the raids. I have been denied access to some of my clients, I am worried for their well-being and safety."

The hunger strike was mainly over the issue of transfer of political prisoners to newly built prisons where all cells were isolation cells -- the so called F-type prisons. Given Turkey's record of brutality in prisons, many prisoners had felt that the the only safety they had was in numbers. Until now, political prisoners were housed in wards of 80 to 100, populated by fellow political prisoners.

Thousands of people in different cities, including Istanbul, Ankara and Adana, took to the streets to protest the government's actions. Turkish news agencies are reporting that most of the protesters were either arrested or dispersed by the police -- thousands have been arrested. During the operations, military police cordoned off all the prisons where those operations were taking place and forbade journalists to come within a mile of the prisons or to climb on rooftops of nearby buildings. The Istanbul State Security Court issued a decree (Kar No:2000/675) stating that the press was banned from "excessive" coverage of the issue of prisons, as well as any coverage that was deemed to "act as propaganda for terrorist organizations." Examples of such propaganda quoted in the decree were news reports that there had been protests in Ankara and in Marmara University and that protesters and the police had clashed. Thus, effectively, all coverage that is either critical of the government and all news that implies that any section of the population is critical of the government has been banned. The International journalists organization, Reporters Without Borders, has protested the censorship.

On December 23rd, the governor of Ankara issued a decree to various NGOs that protests would not be tolerated and that any NGO that participated in protests would be prosecuted for "aiding and abetting terrorist organizations" and "disobeying government decrees." On the same day, the Ankara headquarters of Turkey's independent Human Rights Association was raided and ransacked by the police. Since then many branches of the Association were arbitrarily closed by the government!

In truly Orwellian fashion, the Turkish government has dubbed the operation, which resulted in the death of dozens of people and serious injuries to hundreds, "Operation Return to Life." Unless the government changes its policy drastically, hundreds of political prisoners will perish in the current round of hunger strikes -- an act of political protest that is unprecedented in scale.

TAKE ACTION NOW
FAX NUMBERS OF TURKISH OFFICIALS (Click for tips on how to write letters of protest)
President (Salutation: Your Excellency)
+90-312 427 13 30
Prime Minister (Dear Prime Minister)
+90-312 417 04 76
Justice Minister (Dear Minister)
+90-312 417 39 54
Minister of Interior Affairs
+90-312 418 17 95

CONTACT YOUR OWN OFFICIALS (and US officials; the US has provided billions of dollars in military aid to Turkey)

William Clinton, President
Phone +1 (202) 456-1414
Fax +1 (202) 456-2461
president@whitehouse.gov

Madeleine Albright, Secretary of State
Phone +1 (202) 647-6575
Fax +1 (202) 647-7120
secretary@state.gov

Your Senators and Representatives, phone Capitol Switchboard: +1 (202) 224-3121 or http://www.house.gov and http://www.senate.gov for full contact info