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Three killed, 250 injured in Kurdish riots
in Turkey
30.3.2006
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DIYARBAKIR,
Kurdistan-Turkey, March 29, 2006 (AFP) - 21h06 -
Three people were killed and 250 others injured in
two days of violent clashes between Kurdish youths
and police that wreaked havoc in this southeastern
Turkish city, officials said Wednesday.
About 200 protestors were detained, Efkan Ala, the
governor of Diyarbakir in the mainly Kurdish
southeast of the country, told reporters late in the
evening as the unrest abated.
Hundreds of Kurdish youths went on the rampage for a
second day in Diyarbakir Wednesday, hurling petrol
bombs at the police and vandalizing shops and public
buildings, in what appeared to be the worst street
battles in southeast Turkey for years.
The two-decade Kurdish conflict has long impeded
Turkey's bid to join the European Union and
continues to cast a pall on its commitment to
democarcy and human rights.
The violence broke out Tuesday following the
funerals of four Kurdish rebels, who were among 14
militants killed over the weekend in a military
operation against the separatist Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK), when angry mourners shouting "vengence"
attacked the security forces.
On Wednesday, the army moved tanks to a garrison in
the outskirts of Diyarbakir as the authorities
called in reinforcements from neighboring regions,
including paramilitary police and special commando
forces.
Riot police, taking cover behind plastic shields,
fired tear gas at the protestors and sprayed them
with pressurized water from armored vehicles, also
firing warning shots in the air.
About 600 paramilitary commandoes were deployed
outside the governor's office after protestors
stoned the building.
Groups of angry youths, some wearing masks, pelted
the security forces with sticks and stones or petrol
bombs, shouting slogans in favor of the PKK and its
jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The crowd burned down a bank and torched several
vehicles Tuesday.
Ala identified one of the dead as a passer-by who
was killed in a traffic accident while running away
from the trouble, and Diyarbakir Mayor Osman
Baydemir said two other victims died in hospital
from firearms wounds.
Half of the injured were policemen, Ala said, adding
that one person was in serious condition.
The main Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party
(DTP), urged an end to the violence, while blaming
the unrest on Ankara's failure to meet Kurdish
demands for greater freedoms.
"The developments... have come to a point that will
seriously harm both democracy and our peoples' will
to live together," Baydemir, a DTP member, said.
"What has happened is the result of the failure to
find a permanent and peaceful settlement to the
Kurdish question."
Eager to boost its EU bid, Ankara has made a series
of gestures to the Kurds, including the inauguration
of Kurdish-language broadcasts and private courses
teaching their tongue, but activists demand broader
rights.
"No reason can justify such violence. You cannot
resolve a problem by creating bigger problems," Ala
said, calling on residents for restraint.
In Ankara, Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu charged
that the unrest was instigated by the PKK, which has
stepped up violence in the southeast since calling
off a five-year ceasefire in June 2004.
The foreign ministry said it was investigating
whether the Denmark-based pro-PKK Roj TV, which
Turkey wants banned, had a role in fanning the
violence.
The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed some
37,000 lives since the PKK, blacklisted as a
terrorist group by Ankara, the EU and the United
States, took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the
southeast in 1984.
AFP
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