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DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Sept 1 (AFP) - 14h35 - Seven
people were injured, one seriously, in a bomb
explosion Thursday believed aimed at a pro-Kurdish
gathering in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast,
local security sources said.
The explosives went off near a tent set up by the
country's main Kurdish party, DEHAP, on the occasion
of September 1 -- celebrated as world peace day in
Turkey -- in the small town of Semdinli near the
border with Iraq and Iran.
Most of the injured, among them women, suffered from
concussion, but one man sustained serious injuries.
The explosives were designed to make a loud noise
and were not very powerful, the sources said.
DEHAP says it favours a peaceful solution to the
bloody conflict between Turkey and armed Kurdish
rebels, but it has caused outrage, especially among
nationalist circles, with statements in favour of
the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its
jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The party is facing a possible ban for suspected
links with PKK rebels and for allegedly falsifying
documents to win a berth in the 2002 general
elections.
Violence has sharply increased in southeastern
Turkey since June 2004 when the PKK called off a
five-year unilateral truce complaining of government
foot-dragging on pledges to expand the rights of the
Kurdish population.
The PKK's political wing, KONGRA-GEL, announced a
fresh one-month unilateral ceasefire on August 19
but underlined that the rebels would continue to
defend themselves in the face of Turkish military
operations.
The Turkish army has brushed aside the rebels'
truce, vowing to press ahead with a campaign to
crush the PKK, which is considered a terrorist
organisation by Turkey, the United States and the
European Union.
The conflict with the rebels has claimed some 37,000
lives since 1984, the year PKK militants first took
up arms to fight for self-rule in southeastern
Turkey.
AFP
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