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[dhkc]

What Happened On August 17 (1999) Was Not A Natural Disaster, It Was A Massacre! THE STATE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MASSACRE, THIS WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN, OTHERS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO FORGET, AND WE WILL DEMAND A RECKONING! Tens of thousands of our people were killed, tens of thousands were left handicapped; thousands of our people were buried in mass graves with bulldozers and annihilated, or exposed to hunger and the open air; for a year our people have been condemned to live in poverty in tents with nobody listening to their cries. We feel the sorrow of the victims of the earthquake who faced to an intensified degree the hunger and poverty, unemployment and deprivation that already afflicted our peoples. Although we might be prisoners behind four walls; our hearts, our consciousness, everything we possess and everything we do not possess have been full of their pains, distress, worries and troubles for over a year. In the year since August 17, the revolutionary anger we felt from the first moment has grown and today we shout out that: August 17 was not a natural disaster, it was a massacre. The fact that it is an earthquake zone was not considered important; seismic and geological analysis was not carried out, the state and its institutions did not put into effect zoning and construction plans which were proof against earthquakes, and the capitalists who produced inadequate materials, the local authorities who took bribes and the builders who stole materials all bear responsibility. In our understanding, it is this system which is against the people, which spills blood, plunders and exploits, and the fascist state which all bear responsibility for the massacre. On the anniversary of August 17, we share the pain of our people and express our respect towards those we have lost. On the night of August 17, at 0302, in all the prisons we are in, we prisoners also shouted out slogans to show that WE DID NOT FORGET and WILL NOT LET OTHERS FORGET. For decades our peoples have been exposed to pain: trampled upon, exploited, oppressed; in the streets, in the countryside, in the cities, in the prisons, natural disasters have turned into massacres; while our people as a whole were in their deepest pain, the TAHKIM (Arbitration laws: giving unlimited investment opportunity to the foreign capital) laws were opportunistically ratified in one night as a result of pressure from the IMF for “reform” of social security; trillions of Turkish lira collected supposedly for “the earthquake and those affected by it” flowed into the coffers of the SABANCIs and KOCs. While our wealth is squandered for the sake of the imperialist gentry, hundreds of thousands remain hungry and miserable in the midst of snow, winter and uproar; the fascist state, which is guilty of burning our infants in broad daylight, continues to commit new crimes every day. While the needs and the rights of those of our people affected by the earthquake count for nothing, millions of dollars have been spent on the F-Type prisons, 15 billion dollars have been wasted on weapons, and we warn the fascist state which is seeking in these ways to make our people surrender that THE CRIMES OF THE ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE HAVE NOT GONE UNPUNISHED AND WILL NOT REMAIN UNPUNISHED. On the anniversary of August 17, in all the prisons we are in, we will refuse to be counted for a day, in protest at the fascist state and its practices. THE STATE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MASSACRES, WE WILL DEMAND A RECKONING! August 17, 2000 CENTRAL COORDINATION OF PRISONS (CMK) AND those prisoners from the DEVRIMCI YOL, THKP-C/MLSPB AND TDP TRIALS in all the prisons…

CMK August 17 ENG.doc