From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 23:27:33 +0100 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: "[Ozgurluk.Org]" AP: Turkey's leading rights group under threat of closure ANKARA, Feb 21 (AFP) - A Turkish prosecutor has demanded that Turkey's leading rights group, the Human Rights Association (IHD), be closed for irregular activities, the IHD chairman told AFP Wednesday. The prosecutor accused the IHD of activities that went beyond the stated purposes of its founding documents, the group's chairman, Husnu Ondul, said. "The reasons for the charge are particularly our activities against the introduction of a new jail system and our support for inmate families during the hunger strikes," Ondul said. He was referring to a massive hunger strike in December by mainly far-left inmates over jails with tighter security, which resulted in a deadly security crackdown in December. "Monitoring the situation in prisons, however, is among our stated purposes," Ondul said. He played down the case saying that it would not lead to the IHD's closure. Prosecutors have also launched a separate case to ban the IHD's Ankara branch on the grounds that its executive members were aiding illegal organizations. The IHD has long been at odds with Turkish authorities, who see the group as an advocate of separatist Kurdish rebels and other outlawed groups. In May 1998, former IHD chairman Akin Birdal was seriously injured in an attempt on his life after alleged confessions by a former PKK leader published in Turkish newspapers linked the IHD to Kurdish rebels. -- Press Agency Ozgurluk In Support of the Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Struggle in Turkey http://www.ozgurluk.org DHKC: http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
