--
Les "Editions Democrite" publient un mensuel en francais :
> "Les dossiers du BIP" avec des traductions d'articles provenant de la
> presse communiste(grecque, allemande, anglaise, turque, russe,
espagnole,
> portugaise...)sur des evenements qui interessent des lecteurs
communistes.
> Editions Democrite, 52, bld Roger Salengro, 93190 LIVRY-GARGAN, FRANCE

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(Forwarding: My comrades are still fighting on!)
Turkey lays siege to two jails, toll
     rises

     By Steve Bryant

                       ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish security
                       forces laid siege to two prisons on
                       Wednesday for the second day running
                       as the justice minister urged protesting
                       prisoners to end armed resistance to
                       troops which has so far cost at least 19
                       lives.

     Paramilitary police raided Istanbul's Umraniye prison before
     dawn, accompanied by fire-engines, a bulldozer and armoured
     cars. A few hours later they moved on Canakkale prison in
     western Turkey where television pictures showed they had knocked huge 
holes in the
     walls of the prison blocks to gain entrance.
     "There is strong resistance at both prisons," an Interior Ministry 
official told Reuters. "The
     operation was re-started from where it left off yesterday evening."
     Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk, speaking to reporters in Ankara, 
called on the
     inmates of both jails to give up and put an end to the bloodiest 
clashes in years in
     Turkey's prisons, where prisoners often have more control than their 
jailers.
     "This meaningless resistance at Umraniye and Canakkale has to stop," he 
said. "I am
     calling on them once again to end their resistance. It leads nowhere."
     Turk said that two paramilitary gendarmes had died along with at least 
16 prisoners, most
     of whom burned themselves to death, when security forces stormed 20 
prisons on
     Tuesday to end hunger strikes aimed at blocking the transfer of 
prisoners to small cells
     from the large dormitories they now occupy.
     Another 78 prisoners had been injured in the raids.
     Anatolia news agency reported a 17th prisoner had died of burns in 
Ankara's Numune
     hospital on Wednesday.
     Paramilitary police armed with gas grenades and backed by helicopters 
struck early on
     Tuesday, moving in after weeks of vain attempts to bring a peaceful end 
to the hunger
     strikes.
     At least 12 inmates died at Istanbul's Bayrampasa prison, where 
officials said the clouds
     of teargas used in Tuesday's raid delayed a full search of the jail for 
many hours.
     By Tuesday night, security forces had taken control of most of the 
prisons, with only
     Umraniye and Canakkale holding out.
     The security operation was slammed by Greece, Turkey's long-time rival 
and critic, and
     the European Commission also expressed concern.
     "We are worried," said Jean-Christophe Filori, spokesman for EU 
Enlargement
     Commissioner Guenther Verheugen.
     "We expressed our worries yesterday and once again we call on all 
parties to stop the
     violence in order to come to a pacific outcome of this conflict," 
Filori said. Turkey is a
     candidate for EU membership.

     ANGER IN STREETS, CAUTION WARNED

     The action sparked angry demonstrations in Istanbul and Ankara, where 
protesters
     remained on the streets until late on Tuesday, clashing with police and 
setting alight a
     police car.
     Prison officials say the transfer of inmates to smaller cells is 
necessary to break the grip of
     organised crime gangs, extreme leftists, Kurdish separatists and 
militant Islamists.
     Many of those involved in the prison protests were jailed for links to 
the Revolutionary
     People's Liberation Party-Front, a militant urban guerrilla group that 
police said in August
     planned a bomb attack on a military airbase hosting U.S. and British 
air patrols over
     northern Iraq.
     Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said the seizure of the leftists' jail 
dormitories would stop the
     group's leaders directing other actions. But he warned of possible 
retaliation by leftist
     groups at large in major cities.
     "Of course there could be provocations; we've got to act very 
cautiously," Ecevit told
     reporters in Ankara. "The important thing is that a major terrorist 
nest has been wiped
     out, and that is an important success."
     The protesters say the small cells will make them more vulnerable to 
abuse by jailers.
     They are demanding that the plans be scrapped and sections of strict 
anti-terrorism laws
     under which many of them were jailed be repealed.
     Turk said the government would not back down from plans to transfer 
prisoners to small
     "F-Type" cells, adding that damage from the raids had already led him 
to transfer nearly
     500 prisoners to various facilities with the new cells.
     "With the new developments...we have no choice but to open some of the 
F-Type jails,"
     he said.
     Turk said he respected the right to criticise the raids, dubbed 
"Operation Return to Life",
     but defended them as necessary to rescue hundreds of prisoners with 
weakening health
     under the hunger strikes.
     He said 821 protesters, 187 of whom had been on a "death fast" in which 
they consumed
     only sugared water for some 60 days, had been taken to hospital but 
that some of them
     were refusing to accept medical treatment.
     "It's a policy these groups have of wiping out their own members. We 
want these youths
     to give that up."
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