12 July 2001 Edition
28th Turkish Hunger Striker Dies
Ali Koc, 30, died in an Ankara hospital late on Sunday 8 July after fasting intermittently for 251 days, the prisoners' solidarity group Ozgur Tayad said. Koc was being held in an Ankara prison pending his trial for membership in the banned Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front. He is the 28th person to die in the hunger strike protesting against new maximum-security prisons with cells that isolate inmates.
Around 200 prisoners from extreme leftist groups and their relatives have been fasting since last year, taking sugared and salted water with vitamins to keep themselves alive and prolong the fast. They are protesting their transfer from large, dormitory-style prison wards to new prisons with one or three-person cells, saying the new setup leaves them isolated and vulnerable to beatings by guards.
In December, during a security operation, 30 prisoners were killed. Around 2,000 troops and policemen took part in the operation to forcibly transfer the political prisoners to the new F-Type prisons.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, say the government's concessions don't go far enough, and the hunger strikers have vowed to continue their fast until they win further compromises, including larger cells. Some European states, including the 26 Counties, have pressed Turkey to take action to end the fast.
Around 200 prisoners from extreme leftist groups and their relatives have been fasting since last year, taking sugared and salted water with vitamins to keep themselves alive and prolong the fast. They are protesting their transfer from large, dormitory-style prison wards to new prisons with one or three-person cells, saying the new setup leaves them isolated and vulnerable to beatings by guards.
In December, during a security operation, 30 prisoners were killed. Around 2,000 troops and policemen took part in the operation to forcibly transfer the political prisoners to the new F-Type prisons.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, say the government's concessions don't go far enough, and the hunger strikers have vowed to continue their fast until they win further compromises, including larger cells. Some European states, including the 26 Counties, have pressed Turkey to take action to end the fast.