27 July 2001

1. "Slow death in wait as Turkish inmates pursue protest against jail reform", i a barely-furnished flat in a poor suburb of the Turkish capital, there is an eery watch as a 34-year-old woman slowly starves herself to death in protest at the introduction of jails with tighter security.

2. "Vedrine tells Turkey it cannot stop EU defense plans", French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said here on Friday that Turkey's objections to a European Union defense project would not stop the project from going ahead.

3. "Turkey rules out virginity tests", Turkey's Health Minister has denied demanding virginity tests for female students suspected of having underage sex.

4. "Turkish government announces economic package to restore confidence", Turkey's government announced a package of economic measures Thursday to ease pressure on the currency and restore confidence in the Treasury's ability to repay debt.

5. "Behind the lines with Jeff Free and Bean Kurd", as police investigate claims that millions of pounds raised by Lord Archer for the Kurds went missing, his blundering visit to the region to see for himself is recalled.

6. "I am the PKK", Palestinian youth chanted slogans "Ocalan is a hero, there can be nothing to him, he always resists" and "O wounded Ocalan, we are your remedy, o wounded Lebanon, we are your remedy" in Arabic with applause.


1. - AFP - "Slow death in wait as Turkish inmates pursue protest against jail reform":

ANKARA

In a barely-furnished flat in a poor suburb of the Turkish capital, there is an eery watch as a 34-year-old woman slowly starves herself to death in protest at the introduction of jails with tighter security. The antagonist is Ayse Bastimur, a left-wing prisoner who has been hunger-striking since October 23 and who was granted a six-month conditional release on July 19 on account of her deteriorating health.

She is just one of 200 prisoners on the hunger strike against the inauguration of the new prisons, commonly known as "F-type" prisons, where cells holding a maximum of three people replace the existing large dormitories for up to 60. "I began the hunger strike on my own will and am determined to pursue it to the end," said an extremely frail Bastimur who is so underweight and weak that she needs help to move about. Drinking only water or tea, she refuses medical examination or treatment and is undaunted by the near prospect of death. "I am ready to die. Our struggle is worth it," said Bastimur, a hardcore leftist with the sign of her faction, a star, hennaed onto her left palm. "The issue is not how long my body will hold on, but to bring our rebellion to a successful end," she added with a faint smile on her face. The deadly protest has already claimed 29 lives, including both prisoners and inmates' relatives who joined the strike in solidarity.

The prisoners and human rights activists claim confinement in smaller units would alienate inmates from fellow prisoners and leave them more vulnerable to ill-treatment and torture by prison officials. But, despite the mounting death toll, the government has refused to go back on the F-type prisons, arguing that the packed dormitories were the main factor behind the frequent riots in its unruly jails. In a bid to answer the prisoners' demands, the government pushed through parliament a series of laws allowing prisoners to use recreational areas inside the new prisons and setting up civic boards to inspect the compounds. But the moves have been brushed aside by both the protestors and rights activists as insufficient. Bastimur herself was incarcerated in an F-type prison six months before her parole. She began serving her 15-year sentence -- on charges of membership of an extre left-wing underground group, namely People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (DHKP-C) -- in a maximum security jail in the western province of Canakkale.

She was then transfered to an F-type prison in Kutahya, also in the west of the country, following a December 19 crackdown by security forces on scores of prisons to end the hunger strike, which left 30 prisoners and two soldiers dead. "I was all alone in a room. There was no one to help me despite the fact that I was in the advanced stage of my hunger strike. There were no newspapers and we could not meet relatives," Bastimur said of her days in Kutahya. But despite the absence of any dialogue between the protestors and the government, and the lack of any softening in both sides' stance, she is optimistic that the prisoners' strike will reach its aim of eradicating the new prisons. "The government's resistance will be finally broken. There are more people ready to join the strike. We will continue until not even one of us is left alive," she said.

"The government is already cornered. That is why they are conditionally releasing prisoners with the hope that they will in return abandon their protests. But that will not happen," she added. Without doubt, the long-running hunger strike, coupled with the government's heavy-handed clampdown in December, has badly tarnished Turkey's already poor human rights record at a time when it is obliged to carry out democratic reforms to promote its European Union candidacy. But one of the most horrific outcomes of the hunger strike remains the permanent handicaps the protestors will suffer through lack of nutrition over a long period of time.


2. - AFP - "Vedrine tells Turkey it cannot stop EU defense plans":

ANKARA

French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said here on Friday that Turkey's objections to a European Union defense project would not stop the project from going ahead. "Turkey must understand that the fifteen EU states will move forward anyway," Vedrine said after a meeting here with his Turkish counterpart Ismail Cem.

"Turkey should understand (the EU) and facilitate the project. It is in its interest," Vedrine added. He said Ankara and Brussels had not yet reached a point of compromise and urged both sides to make efforts on the issue within the framework of an "open dialogue." For a long time Turkey, a NATO member and EU hopeful, has been firmly opposed to a deal between the EU and NATO that will allow the Union to access NATO strategic planning assets. Ankara insists such access be decided on a case-by-case basis and not "guaranteed and permanent" as the EU wants. Access to NATO strategic planning is considered vital to the EU's fledgling moves into the defense field, notably the setting up of a 60,000-strong rapid reaction force by 2003, planned to intervene in Kosovo-like troublespots.

Though not yet an EU member, Turkey demands a strong say in the decision-making mechanisms in future operations, citing its volatile security environment, at the crossroads of the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East.


3. - AP - "Turkey rules out virginity tests":

ANKARA

Turkey's Health Minister has denied demanding virginity tests for female students suspected of having underage sex.

Earlier this month Osman Durmus introduced a regulation stipulating that girls studying at government-run nursing schools should be expelled if they were found to have had sex under 18, the legal age of consent for pre-marirtal intercourse in Turkey.

Any girl suspected of breaking the law would, it was reported in the Turkish press, be subjected to a gynaecological examination.

If it was found she was no longer a virgin she would be expelled from the school and barred from studying at any other government institution.

The regulation sparked a wave of protests from women's and human rights groups, both within Turkey and internationally.

In a letter to Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, U.S.-based organisation Human Rights Watch described Durmus' policy as a "profound violation of women's human rights," and called on him to rescind the order.

"The imposition of this test on girls -- and the subsequent denial of education opportunities based on test results -- represent an intolerable form of gender discrimination," the letter continued.

In the face of mounting opposition, including criticism from the leader of his own far-right Nationalist Action Party, Durmus issued a written statement on Thursday denying he had ever called for forced gynaecological examinations.

"Virginity tests for girls studying at our schools, or a return to such a practice, or any flexibility that would allow such a practice are out of the question," the statement said.

At the same time, however, he refused to backtrack on his central policy of expulsion for any girl found to have had underage intercourse, although he would not say how school authorities would determine whether the girls had had sex or not.

Forced virginity tests used to be common in Turkey. They were banned in 1999 after five girls due to be subjected to them committed suicide by taking rat poison.


4. - AP - "Turkish government announces economic package to restore confidence":

ANKARA

Turkey's government announced a package of economic measures Thursday to ease pressure on the currency and restore confidence in the Treasury's ability to repay debt.

Kemal Dervis, the economy minister and chief architect of Turkey's International Monetary Fund-backed economic recovery program, said the changes were "technical adjustments" to overcome problems that have beset the program since early July.

The program, backed by $15.7 billion in loans from the IMF and the World Bank, aims to reduce inflation and ease the state out of the economy. But disputes within the government have heightened market fears that the government is not fully committed to implementing the program, driving the lira down to some 1.32 million to the dollar and forcing long-term interest rates over 90 percent.

Dervis announced adjustments in withholding taxes on bank deposits designed to encourage investors to favor lira-denominated and longer-term investments. Withholding tax on overnight deposits will rise from 16 to 20 percent, but the government dropped charges on longer-term deposits from 16 percent to 14 percent for 3 to 6 month deposits, 10 percent for 6 to 12 month deposits and 6 percent for maturities over 12 months. The tax on foreign exchange accounts with maturities under 12 months rises from 16 to 18 percent.

The Finance Ministry will raise the threshold for tax declarations of Treasury bond holdings to 50 billion lira ($38,000).

The change "will encourage small and medium size investors to enter the Treasury bond market," Dervis said.

"What's important is the economy's basic stability, social peace and confidence in the future," Dervis said. "Technical adjustments can't replace this, but they can contribute to it."

The Central Bank governor, Sureyya Serdengecti, announced moves to lower the cost of credit financing, reducing levies on non-consumer credit to 3 percent in a move aimed at easing the flow of funds to the real sector. He also said the Central Bank will begin paying interest on the compulsory deposits of private banks.

Dervis announced a restructuring of government debt held by state banks and private banks that have been taken into receivership. He said the move would reduce the government's domestic debt repayments by some 4 quadrillion lira ($3 billion) this year.

Analysts welcomed the measures announced Thursday but said they were largely expected, and warned that the key concern for markets was a possible change in exchange rate policy, an issue which Dervis declined to discuss.


5. - The Guardian - "Behind the lines with Jeff Free and Bean Kurd":

As police investigate claims that millions of pounds raised by Lord Archer for the Kurds went missing, his blundering visit to the region to see for himself is recalled

January 1992. Four thousand five hundred feet up in the snowbound mountains of northern Iraq, and the thought of what had happened to the reputed £57m collected in Britain from concerts for the Kurds was not on the mind of Jeffrey Archer.

The convoy of 12 personnel carriers bristling with gun-toting moustachioed Kurdish peshmergas had weaved a way through the wrecked lines of broken-down trucks, bemused passers-by, and goatherds, dodged the Iraqi army and was now stuck on a mountain pass in four feet of snow.

"Jeff Free" as he had become known to his Kurdish hosts leapt out and took command. "Men, I want no slackers. Come on, Guardian. You, too. On, Kurds, on! Away with all ice! What we need here is some Guards officers. They'll sort this lot out."

"This lot" was not altogether impressed. Twenty-five fighters dropped their rifles, machine guns and small arms in the snow. "Wait for it," cried Mr Free. "One, two, three - push!" The wheels of the wagon spun in one direction, the peshmergas shoved hopelessly in the other. "Jeff Free duf nabee?" muttered a driver, which translated roughly as "Why cannot Mr Archer bog off?"

Archer's trip to Kurdistan to find out what had happened to the cash was doomed from the start. His self-selected investigative team consisted of a distinguished Georgian archaeologist who wanted to study ancient funerary transcriptions, "Bean Kurd" and "Lemon Kurd", two young Kurds educated at English public school who were rapidly going native carrying Kalashnikovs, and a very beautiful PhD student studying Kurdish oral traditions. They were all unsure what was going on.

What happened to the cash was not on the Kurds' minds either. Their agenda was to tell the world what was happening. They wanted official western aid, and a signal that they had not been forgotten by the international community.

Their situation was desperate. There were food riots, the price of staple foods had risen 2,000%, there was no fuel, people were not being paid. It was the worst winter in years, and the human suffering from Saddam Hussein's blockade was terrible and widespread. Archer's trip cost a fortune to organise, money some felt could have been better spent on relieving the misery.

But Archer, the only man thought ever to have entered Kurdistan in winter in a suit and tie and with a letter from John Major in his pocket, was also seen as a political godsend, to his great credit the only westerner of any significance to visit the scenes of some of the worst massacres and destitution since Saddam Hussein launched his offensive on the Kurds.

But the situation suited Archer, too. The deputy Tory party chairman had always longed to be a soldier and a politician. Here in the mountains, with what he called "the tribes", he could be both of these and be treated like royalty. He was tickled pink to act as a general but worried terribly about his image, delegating Bean Kurd - later to buy for him the controversial shares in Anglia, the company in which his wife was a director - to spy on myself and the only other journalist to find out what we were writing.

Clearly no British or any other money had got through to the villages but it did not stop huge crowds coming out to greet him. "Welcome Lord Arser," read one banner. Archer had the same short theatrical speech prepared for the vast crowds that assembled wherever he went. It always ended: "I say in my language 'Long live Kurdistan'. Repeat after me" and the crowd would cheer wildly. The speech would go on: "And so I say in your language 'Beje, Beje Kurdistan, [Long live Kurdistan]". The crowd would go mad, firing volleys and dancing.

Unfortunately Archer became over confident and in one town told a crowd of 5,000 heavily armed peshmergas: "Biji, biji Kurdistan", which translates as "Devilish, devilish Kurdistan". The crowd went silent, you could hear the guns being cocked and Archer had to beat a hasty retreat as a riot practically broke out.

While he genuinely liked the Kurds, he never ceased to miss the point they were trying to make. "These people are remarkable. Look at their initiative, their drive. It's a lesson for us all," he said, looking round one hospital. "They are a decent, middle-class, work-ethically motivated, self-sufficient people who, given a chance of autonomy, would make a real go of it. This hospital, look at its technology, its operating theatre. It's as good as anything in the west. It would be a credit to the NHS. Brilliant doctors, the Kurds."

The Kurds showing him round were perplexed and one had to put his arm round Archer. "Er, this hospital, Mr Jeff Free, in one month's time it will have no needles, no oxygen, no anaesthetic, no painkillers. It has no electricity or water." It took Archer a while to comprehend, but he was genuinely moved when greeted by 5,000 women all of whom had had their husbands or sons murdered by Saddam Hussein.

So what happened to the money raised at the Simple Truth concert at Wembley? The mission came away none the wiser, Archer limiting himself to hand shaking, meeting Kurdish leaders, accepting gifts, and making powerful enemies.

Having struggled up one mountain to greet Massoud Barzani, one of the most powerful Kurdish leaders, in his mountain hideout, he declined an invitation to a welcoming feast and to spend the night, saying he wanted an early start from his hotel down in the valley the next morning.

Mr Barzani was visibly furious, and Archer's party was deeply embarrassed. By the time it reached the town 10 miles away, Mr Barzani had got a message down the mountain and instructed the Kurds to cut off electricity to his - and only his - hotel.

The Red Cross said yesterday that its 1991 accounts showed the charity received £9.2m from the Simple Truth appeal. Of that, £5m came from the government; the remainder, £4.2m, was from donations and the Wembley concert.


6. - Ozgur Politika - "I am the PKK":

Palestinian youth chanted slogans "Ocalan is a hero, there can be nothing to him, he always resists" and "O wounded Ocalan, we are your remedy, o wounded Lebanon, we are your remedy" in Arabic with applause.

BEIRUT

Declaration of identity campaign started in Europe leapt to Middle-east. In Lebanon the signature campaign was attended by 2,850 people and the signatures collected were submitted to United Nations (UN) Beirut Representation Office with a march.

Gathering in Kola Square of Beirut, the Kurdish demonstrators began marching at 11.00 a.m. They carried a big poster of PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) President Abdullah Ocalan and flags of PKK, Lebanon and Palestine, and banners in Arabic and English. At the march lasting about an hour, demonstrators chanted slogans for PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, Kurdistan and Palestine in Arabic and Kurdish. The masses frequently chanted slogans "Long live serhildan (popular uprising), our leader is Ocalan" and "Peace for Kurdistan freedom to Ocalan".

Representatives of Palestinian organizations had a part in front of the cortege and Palestinian youth took part in the demonstration with their slogans, banners and flags. Palestinian youth chanted slogans "Ocalan is a hero, there can be nothing to him, he always resists" and "O wounded Ocalan, we are your remedy, o wounded Lebanon, we are your remedy" in Arabic with applause.

As the march ended with a meeting in front of UN Beirut Representation Office, a delegation submitted a dossier including 2850 signatures and their demands to a UN administrator.