6 April 2001

1. "Ocalan questioned over Swedish murder", a team of Swedish investigators has gone to a Turkish prison island to interview the Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan about the assassination in 1986 of the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme.

2. "Turkey reduces Military Budget along with Greece", Turkey is reducing its military budget as its longtime rival Greece has postponed a major fighter-jet procurement program.

3. "Turkey", Turkey and Pakistan have agreed to develop defense cooperation.

4. "Prisons Sub-Commission members to start inspecting F-Type prisons tomorrow", prisons Sub-Commission of the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission will start visiting F-type prions starting tomorrow, it was reported on Thursday.

5. "Active days in the South", The KDP and PUK held a meeting in order to normalize relations on difficult issues between them. It was decided to remove the military line that divides South [Iraqi] Kurdistan into two at the meeting, but again no agreement was reached on the problem of a joint government.

6. "IHD chairman: Hunger strikers border death", Human Rights Association (IHD) Chairman Husnu Ondul said on Thursday that 122 inmates who are either on hunger strikes or death fasts are on the border of death.

1. - BBC- "Ocalan questioned over Swedish murder":

ISTANBUL

A team of Swedish investigators has gone to a Turkish prison island to interview the Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan about the assassination in 1986 of the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme.
The team wants to ask Mr Ocalan about allegations he has made that a dissident Kurdish group killed Mr Palme.
It is now 15 years since Palme was shot dead on a Stockholm street as he walked home from the cinema with his wife.

There have always been several conspiracy theories swirling around the case, including allegations about some kind of Kurdish connection, but nothing has ever been proved.

'Dissident group'

Mr Ocalan has alleged that the murder was carried out by a dissident Kurdish faction led by his ex-wife.

During his treason trial in Turkey in 1999, Mr Ocalan said the dissidents wanted to discredit his organisation, the PKK.

Other allegations have been made that the PKK itself was involved.

It is known that Kurdish groups in Sweden were under surveillance before Mr Palme's death amid suspicion that they were plotting a murder.

Some time after the killing, a number of Kurds were taken into custody, but they were released without charge.

Investigation criticised

Now the Swedish investigators want to hear from Mr Ocalan exactly what he says he knows.
Mr Ocalan's lawyers say the Turkish Ministry of Justice did not respond to their request to be present during the meeting.

Mr Ocalan has made many accusations since he was captured and he may have little proof about his theory on the Palme killing.

The Swedish police investigation has been heavily criticised and it appears to be no nearer to a solution.

A Swedish man, Christer Pettersson, was convicted of killing Palme in 1989, but he was later acquitted on appeal.

2. - Middle East Newsline - "Turkey reduces Military Budget along with Greece":

ANKARA

Turkey is reducing its military budget as its longtime rival Greece has postponed a major fighter-jet procurement program.

The reduction of Turkey's military budget comes as the government of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit has determined that Greece is doing the same. Greek government leaders are calling on Ankara to cooperate in reducing defense expenditures.

So far, Greece has decided to postpone by at least three years the $4.4 billion purchase of the Eurofighter. The delay was taken amid a decision by the government in Athens to invest more resources in social programs.

Officials said Turkey regards its main threat from Iran and Syria. But they acknowledged that Ankara's defense budget has been reduced by a third because of the huge drop in the Turkish lira.

"Reducing military purchases is a matter which must be discussed by the military authorities," Huseyin Dirioz, a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman, said. "Turkey's geopolitical conditions are different from those of Greece."

3. - Middle East Defense - "Turkey":

Turkey and Pakistan have agreed to develop defense cooperation.

Details of the agreement are sketchy. Pakistan said the agreement will include joint training and exchange of intelligence. Turkish officials said the agreement essentially maintains the current level of defense cooperation.

The agreement was reached during the visit to Islamabad over the weekend by Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Huseyin Kivirkoglu. The military chief met Pakistani ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

In Ankara, Turkey's military is considering dropping plans to produce an attack helicopter.
Instead, military and defense officials are examining the prospect that Turkey will purchase helicopters from a Western contractor amid the nation's fiscal crisis.

The review by the military of major defense procurement has been launched in response to the sharp drop in the Turkish lira and the need to obtain new Western loans. Defense sources said the military has agreed in principle to delay or cut major programs.

4. - Anadolu Agency - "Prisons Sub-Commission members to start inspecting F-Type prisons tomorrow":

ANKARA

Prisons Sub-Commission of the Parliamentary Human Rights Commission will start visiting F-type prions starting tomorrow, it was reported on Thursday.

Commission Chairman Huseyin Akgul told reporters that the visit they made to Australia on March 23-30 was very beneficial. ''Human rights in this country became institutionalized,'' he said.

Australia which has 180 different ethnic groups, 82 languages and 72 religious beliefs, is ruled by a different system and there is a big respect for human rights, Akgul explained. He said that the prisons were privatized and thus run by private companies and that the state only did the inspection of prisons.

Briefing the commission's activities, Akgul said they received complaints about the drinking water given to inmates at Tekirdag prions and informed the Justice Ministry about the situation.

The sub-commission members will carry out inspections at all F-type prisons starting tomorrow and also work to convince inmates to end death fasts. He remarked that the sub-commission will also prepare a report after watching the video footages and autopsy reports of the major operation security forces carried in a number of prisons in December.

5. - Kurdish Observer - "Active days in the South":

The KDP and PUK held a meeting in order to normalize relations on difficult issues between them. It was decided to remove the military line that divides South [Iraqi] Kurdistan into two at the meeting, but again no agreement was reached on the problem of a joint government.

The Kurdistan Democrat Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) reached a new agreement to withdraw their forces from positions near the border and to open up bureaus in each other's territory.

The meeting, which was attended by KDP and PUK politburo delegations the other day in the main KDP headquarters in Selahaddin, aimed at normalizing relations between the two powers. A number of subjects which had previously been debated and decided upon in the framework of protocol agreements were reviewed at the meeting. The most significant decisions reached were to remove the military line which has divided South Kurdistan into the Soran and Behdinan regions since 1996 and for the two parties to open representative offices in each other's territories. On the other hand, no agreement was reached on the biggest problem remaining between the two sides, the problem of a joint government and parliament.

It was decided that discussions concerning a joint parliament would be taken up again after the delegations from the two sides had conferred with their respective parties. The PUK does not accept the existing status of the local parliament in Hewler (Arbil) and therefore wants new elections. It has been reported, on the other hand, that the two sides may reach an agreement on a common legal system in the near future.

PUK not sitting still

According to information received from local sources in South Kurdistan, there has been military movement by the PUK in recent days against the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The movement is being viewed as preparation for hot conflict against the PKK in the region. Meanwhile, Turkey began to withdraw its military units from the South last week, but there has been news at the same time that it sent a 16-vehicle convoy of military supplies to the PUK five days ago.

6. - Turkish daily News - "IHD chairman: Hunger strikers border death":

ANKARA

Human Rights Association (IHD) Chairman Husnu Ondul said on Thursday that 122 inmates who are either on hunger strikes or death fasts are on the border of death.

In a joint press conference with inmates families, Ondul called on the government to end the new prison system, which involves having one or three inmates per cell.

Government and human rights associations are at odds over the newly built high security F-type prisons. Hunger strikes began 166 days ago by leftist inmates in an effort to protest transfer to these prisons.

Ondul asked the government to form an independent committee from among nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) for the regular inspection of Turkey's notorious prisons.

Ondul also called on the government to launch an independent investigation against "Operation Return to Life."

The government in December ordered the storming of various prisons all over the country by security forces in an effort to end death fasts, however these incidents claimed the lives of more than 20 people.