TURKEY: THREE MORE LEFTIST INMATES DIE AS A RESULT OF HUNGER STRIKE AGAINST PRISON CONDITIONS

Record ID: 639891

  • Title: TURKEY: THREE MORE LEFTIST INMATES DIE AS A RESULT OF HUNGER STRIKE AGAINST PRISON CONDITIONS
  • Date: 26th July 1996
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JULY 26-27, 1996) (RTV ACCESS ALL) (JULY 27) 1. LAS/SV PROTESTERS MARCH IN SUPPORT OF THE HUNGER STRIKERS DOWN ISTIKLAL STREET IN ISTANBUL (2 SHOTS) 0.08 2. SV TURKISH POLICE LOOK ON 0.13 3. LV/SV PROTESTERS HOLD DEMONSTRATION/ADDRESSED BY MOTHERS AND RELATIVES OF THOSE WHO HAVE DIED (WITH BLACK BANDS) (KNOWN AS 'SATURDAY MOTHERS') (4 SHOTS) 0.32 4. TV OF PROTEST MEETING 0.40 5. SV WOMAN WHOSE SONS OR DAUGHTERS HAVE DIED SPEAK TO PROTESTERS/PEOPLE MAKING V SIGN (5 SHOTS) 1.09 6. SV RELATIVES OF THOSE WHO HAVE DIED HOLD UP PHOTOGRAPHS OF THEM 1.16 7. CU PHOTOGRAPHERS 1.20 8. MCU COLUMNIST AND MUSICIAN ZULFU LIVANELI SPEAKS OF HIS MEETING WITH MINISTER OF JUSTICE SEVKET KAZAN AND ISTANBUL'S CHIEF PROSECUTOR, SAYING HE BELIEVES THE SITUATION IS HOPELESS, THE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY OF THE PRISONERS' DEMANDS AND THE PRISONERS ARE DYING -- HE SAYS TWENTY OR THIRTY MAY DIE A DAY IN FUTURE (ENGLISH) 1.58 (JULY 26) 9. LV BUS WITH POLICE ESCORT AT FUNERAL MOTORCADE/CU MAN LOOKING 0N (2 SHOTS) 2.04 10. LV/SV COFFIN OF ALI AYATA WHO DIED IN PRISON IS TAKEN FROM BUS BY RELATIVES AND TAKEN TO GRAVE SITE/COFFIN IS BURIED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS OF ALI AYATA DISPLAYED (MUTE) (3 SHOTS) 2.12 11. LV/SV LINE OF SECURITY FORCES IN CAMOUFLAGE UNIFORMS AND WITH RIOT SHIELDS STRETCH ACROSS ROAD IN SARIGAZI DISTRICT OF CITY/SECURITY FORCES WITH RIOT SHIELDS (4 SHOTS) 2.36 12. LV CROWD OF PEOPLE BEHIND SECURITY FORCES RAISE THEIR HANDS IN CLENCHED FIST SALUTE 2.42 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 10th August 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ISTANBUL, TURKEY
  • City:
  • Country: Turkey
  • Reuters ID: LVABH1OE2RZFULM7G0XIAJ2WUGEM
  • Story Text: INTRO: Three more leftist inmates died on Saturday as Turkey's grim "death fast" against prison conditions ground into its 69th day. The deaths raised fears that the army and security forces were prepared to intervene to break the impasse.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------- Human rights officials said Osman Akgun, a 32-year-old convicted urban guerrilla, starved himself to death in Istanbul's Umraniye prison. He was the eleventh inmate to die.

    Earlier, Yemliha Kaya died in Istanbul's Bayrampasa prison.

    Kaya, the second woman to die, had been on trial for membership of a leftist urban guerrilla group.

    Hicabi Kucuk, in his mid-twenties, died in Bursa prison, in western Turkey.

    Officials and a mediator say negotiations with around 300 fasting leftists were deadlocked over demands that 70 to 80 inmates be transferred to Istanbul's main Bayrampasa jail from Eskisehir high-security prison, dubbed The Coffin.

    The inmates were also demanding an end to maltreatment and to a policy of dispersal that they say cuts them off from each other, family and legal counsel.

    The deaths came as a group of women known as the "Saturday Mothers" held their weekly demonstration. The women, who are the mothers and wives of men who disappeared while in police custody, addressed a protest march.

    Meanwhile, leftist musician and columnist Zulfu Livaneli met Justice Minister Sevket Kazan and prosecutors in a bid to mediate the crisis.

    He later said that he thought the situation was hopeless and that as many as 20 to 30 inmates may die before it is resolved.

    Kazan, under intense domestic and international pressure to resolve the crisis, has already warned that inmates are armed and organised and that any intervention would result in many deaths.

    The burials of the victims has created tension in the poor and mainly left leaning outlying districts of Istanbul.

    Authorities try to bury the bodies without the involvement of relatives and supporters of the dead.

    On Friday (July 26), Ali Ayata, who died in Bursa Prison, was buried amid intense security in the Sarigazi district. Apparently there was an agreement of no confrontation between the officials and family members because there were no demonstrations or arrests.


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