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Turkey: Five Kurdish rebels killed in SE
5.12.2006 |
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TUNCELI, Turkey,
December 5, -- Five Kurdish rebels were killed in
clashes with the army in southeast Turkey despite a
ceasefire the militants called in October, the
Turkish general staff said in a statement here
Tuesday.
The fighting occurred Monday in the mountains near
the town of Beytussebap, in Sirnak province, which
borders Iraq and Syria, it said.
Five others -- four presumed members of the rebel
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels and one
soldier -- died in clashes in the same province last
week.
The PKK, which has been fighting the Turkish army
since 1984, proclaimed a unilateral ceasefire from
October 1, saying it hoped this would pave the way
for a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
The truce, like previous ones called by the rebels,
was rejected by Turkey, but fighting has decreased
markedly since then.
More than 37,000 people have died since the PKK,
considered a terrorist group by by Turkey and much
of the international community, took up arms for
self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the
country.
Meanwhile, in Diyarbakir, one person was killed and
nearly 100 others, mostly members of the security
forces, were injured in Sirnak, mainly Kurdish
southeast Turkey, as police and troops clashed with
a lynch mob trying to seize a suspected child rapist
and killer, officials said Tuesday.
The clashes that lasted late into the evening in the
mainly Kurdish town erupted Monday morning after the
suspect was taken for treatment to the Sirnak state
hospital from his prison, where he had been beaten
up by fellow inmates.
Demanding that the man be handed over to them,
several hundred people broke down the hospital door
and windows and attacked police with stones and
Molotov cocktails, forcing the authorities to deploy
troops backed by armored vehicles.
Television footage showed angry men on top of one
such vehicle, which dozens of others pelted with
sticks and stones.
A statement by the local governor accused supporters
of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),
which is active in the region, of fanning the unrest
to discredit the authorities.
Unidentified people in the mob opened fire, the
statement said, and security forces responded with
pepper gas and warning shots in the air.
A 24-year-old hospital employee died from a bullet
to the chest, but it was not immediately clear who
fired the shot, the statement said.
At least 75 members of the security forces and 22
civilians were injured, the Anatolia news agency
reported.
The 21-year-old prisoner, incarcerated last month,
is suspected of murdering two girls aged 13, one in
December 1999 and the other last October, after
sexually assaulting the first and raping the other.
He is also suspected of molesting six other girls.
AFP
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan"
Southeast Turkey.
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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