by New Worker correspondent
MEMBERS of London’s
Kurdish community and their supporters held a protest picket in the heart of
the capital last week to show their support for Kurdish political prisoners on
hunger strike in Turkey.
Kurdish campaigners also took their message to the headquarters of Amnesty
International that week to call on Amnesty to speak out against the grave human
rights violations suffered by Kurds in Turkey.
On 15th
February around 400 political prisoners in Turkey
began an indefinite hunger strike to demand justice for jailed Kurdish Workers’
Party leader Abdullah Ocalan and to raise awareness of the continued
persecution of the Kurds in Turkey.
Within weeks, solidarity actions were taking place across prisons in Turkey
and in Europe, with 15 Kurds from across Europe
gathering in Strasbourg on hunger
strike in solidarity with their compatriots in Turkey
while the number joining the protest in Turkish prisoners has now topped 1,500.
The strikers’
demands are clear. Ocalan has now been isolated from the outside world, with no
visit, letters or phone calls, since July 2011 – a total of 260 days. The
Committee for the Prevention of Torture in Europe has
both the authority and the responsibility to ensure that he is not being
subjected to inhumane or degrading treatment on the prison island
of Imrali, where he has been held
since 1999.
For his removal from isolation and for renewed
dialogue for a negotiated settlement to the Kurdish conflict, these striking
prisoners, politicians and solidarity activists are willing to put their own
health on the line, but they need support.
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