17,000 signatures to stop death fasts

---

Human Rights Association Petition

April 2 2002

The Human Rights Association on Monday presented 17,000 signatures, collected in the "Three Doors, Three Locks" campaign to put an end to death fasts, to Parliamentary Human Rights Committee Chairman Huseyin Akgul.

Akgul said that the interlocutor of the issue was in fact the Justice Ministry, adding that he would transfer the signatures to them. Commenting on the continuing death fasts in the prisons, Akgul noted that they were making attempts to stop them, but added that they have so far failed to obtain an outcome.

Human Rights Association Chairman Husnu Ondul thanked Akgul for his tolerant and democratic approach and hoped that the dialogue between nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the State would further improve. Stressing that death fasts could only be stopped in this way, Ondul said that a total of 89 people have lost their lives during the fasts and added that 450 convicts and prisoners have developed the illness known as 'Korsakoff Syndrome", because of their actions.

Human Rights Association members stage a sit-in to protest F-type prisons.
Meanwhile, a group of Human Rights Association members and the relatives of some of the F-type prison convicts staged a sit-in in front of the association's Ankara branch to protest the F-type prisons.

The protesters called on the government to remove the isolation in F-type prisons in order to stop deaths. They unfolded banners reading, "The three doors and locks should be opened. Deaths should be stopped."

Hundreds of leftist prisoners and many of their supporters started the death fasts more than a year ago, protesting plans to introduce new F-type prisons with small cells. The protestors say the cells isolate prisoners and leave them open to abuse. The government says the new prisons meet European standards and refuses to negotiate with the protesters. The strikers have prolonged their protest by drinking sugared and salted water and taking vitamins to help them stay alive.

Ankara - Turkish Daily News