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At least 19 injured as Kurds clash with
Turkish police
24.3.2006
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DIYARBAKIR,
Kurdistan-Turkey, March 23, 2006 (AFP) - 17h46 -
Nineteen people were injured Thursday when Turkish
riot police broke up a demonstration in the
southeastern city of Hakkari against the arrest of a
Kurdish politician, the regional government said.
Clashes erupted when police ordered the group to
disperse on grounds that their protest was illegal.
The demonstrators pelted the officers with stones
and attacked them with sticks. Police, backed by
armored vehicles, retaliated with tear gas and fired
in the air, the witnesses said.
Nineteen people, including 10 police officers, were
injured and 21 protestors were detained, the Hakkari
regional government said in a statement, adding that
there had been no serious injuries.
The protestors were demonstrating against the arrest
of Sebahattin Suvagci, the provincial head of a
now-dissolved pro-Kurdish party, on charges that he
aided and abetted armed separatist Kurdish rebels.
Turkish officials have in the past accused Kurdish
politicians of supporting the outlawed Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting the
Ankara government for self-rule in southeastern
Turkey since 1984.
Tensions in the Hakkari region have been running
high since the November bombing of a Kurdish-owned
bookstore in the town of Semdinli, which two
soldiers and a Kurdish informer are accused of
perpetrating.
The incident sparked deadly riots and accusations
that Ankara had failed to purge rogue groups in the
security forces accused of summary executions,
extortion, kidnappings and drug-smuggling in the
1990s, when the PKK campaign in the southeast was at
its peak.
AFP
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