Turkey hunger strike deaths rise

ANKARA, Turkey -- A leftist inmate has become the 13th person to die during a hunger strike in protest at plans to reorganise Turkey's prisons.

The Human Rights Association said Sedat Gursel Akmaz, 41, a member of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, died in hospital in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir.

Some 250 inmates linked to leftist militant groups have been refusing food since December in protest at transfers away from large, dormitory-type wards to new prisons with single or three-person cells.

Human rights activists warned last week that 60 prisoners were close to death.

Some relatives have also joined the strike. Akmaz's death on Monday after 151 days without food brought to 11 the number of prisoners who have starved themselves. Two relatives of prisoners have also died.

Prisoners consume vitamins and sugared water to extend the period of their protest.

Another rights group, the Human Rights Foundation urged the government to take "urgent steps" and start negotiations with the protesting inmates.

The government has said it would not yield to prisoner demands and abandon the transfers, which it says are needed to break up the large wings that were run by leftist, Kurdish or militant Islamic groups.

Authorities say the prisoners smuggled in weapons and cellular phones and riots were frequent.

The prisoners oppose the smaller cells saying they are left vulnerable to abuse by guards.

In December, prisoners resisting the transfers clashed with soldiers leaving 30 inmates and two soldiers dead.

The Council of Europe has urged Turkey to reform its prisons and investigate allegations of abuse of prisoners.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Third Turk dies in hunger strike
April 8, 2001
Inmates 'beaten' in new Turkish jails
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Inquiry into Turkish prison raids
January 4, 2001
Turkish jail siege ends
December 22, 2000
Turkish jail protests spread across Europe
December 20, 2000

Republic of Turkey
Amnesty International
Turkish Prime Minister's office
European Human Rights Foundation

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