Turkish prison hunger strike claims 13th life

Sedat Gursel Akmaz, 41, a member of the illegal Revolutionary People's Liberation Army/Front (DHKP/C) died after being transferred to hospital from a high security prison. Eleven inmates and two relatives of inmates have now died in the protest that began in October. The mainly left-wing political prisoners have been staging intermittent hunger strikes in protest at government plans to transfer then to new cell-type prisons.

In an attempt to end the hunger strikes and close down the old ward-type prisons where the inmates effectively controlled their own wards, the government in December ordered raids on 20 prisons across the country. Thirty inmates and two gendarmes died in the four days of fighting. While the government succeeded in having the majority of the political prisoners transferred to the new prisons, inmates are now calling for better conditions in the new jails.

Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk has ruled out any negotiations with the prisoners and doctors warn that more deaths can be expected soon if a solution is not found.

(dpa)