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DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, April 4 (AFP) - 15h42 -
Nine Kurdish rebels and a Turkish soldier have been
killed in the past five days in fighting in mainly
Kurdish southeastern Turkey, officials said Monday.
The clash erupted when a group of members of the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), now also
known as KONGRA-GEL, was surrounded by soldiers in
mountains in the province of Sirnak during a
security operation, the office of the local governor
said.
One militant surrendered to the security forces.
The operation also resulted in the seizure of
weapons and ammunition in caves used by the
militants, the statement said.
The PKK waged a bloody campaing for self-rule in
mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey between 1984 and
1999 before declaring a unilateral ceasefire.
The group called off the truce last June, raising
tensions in the region.
The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed some
36,500 lives.
Turkey's rebel Kurds go back to old name: PKK
ISTANBUL, April 4 (AFP) - 17h07 - Turkey's
armed rebel Kurdish movement has decided to revert
back to its original name of PKK after two name
changes in three years, a pro-Kurdish news agency
reported on Monday.
The MHA news agency said a "congress" of 205 members
of the organisation, considered terrorist by Turkey
and many Western countries, met in "the mountains of
Kurdistan" and decided to once again go by its
original name of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, whose
Kurdish acronym is PKK.
MHA said the name-change would be effective from
April 4, the birthday of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan,
now serving a life sentence for treason in a Turkish
jail.
"Our congress (has) purged the PKK of its
shortcomings and errors," a document quoted by MHA
said.
The PKK, founded by Ocalan in 1978, waged an armed
campaign against the Ankara government from 1984 to
1999, which claimed some 37,000 lives in
souutheastern Turkey.
The group, which describes itself as
marxist-leninist, proclaimed a unilateral ceasefire
in September 1999 after Ocalan was captured in
Nairobi, tried and sentenced to death. The sentence
was later commuted to life in jail.
The PKK was dissolved in April 2002 and renamed
itself KADEK (Congress for Demoracy and Freedom in
Kurdistan) to "pursue the struggle for Kurdish
liberation."
In November 2003, KADEK too said it was dissolving
itself, taking on the name KONGRA-GEL (Kurdistan
People's Congress) and renouncing separatism.
In June 2004, it announced the end of its unilateral
truce. Fighting has resumed since in parts of
southeast Turkey, but on a far smaller scale than in
the 1990s.
Officials Monday said nine PKK militants and one
soldier died in clashes in southeastern Sirnak
province over the past five days.
AFP
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