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175 charged in Turkey's Kurdish riots
28.4.2006
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DIYARBAKIR,
Kurdistan-Turkey, April 28, 2006 (AFP) -
Prosecutors in Diyarbakir in the restless Kurdish
region of southeastern Turkey have charged 175
people with involvement in violent clashes last
month, court sources said Friday.
Charges include violation of laws on demonstrations,
and one of operating and membership of an armed
group -- a reference to the separatist Kurdistan
Workers' Party (PKK), accused of orchestrating the
riots.
Possible sentences on conviction range from three
years to a maximum life imprisonment.
The latest charges bring the number indicted so far
to 265, including 80 minors who could face up to 24
years imprisonment.
Riots erupted in Diyarbakir, main town of the
Kurdish region, last March 28 after youths demanding
vengeance attacked the police following the funerals
of PKK rebels killed in fighting with Turkish armed
forces.
A total of 16 people, including three small boys,
were killed when security forces opened fire and
used tear gas to disperse crowds, which attacked the
police with Molotov cocktails and vandalized public
buildings and shops.
Three women were crushed to death in Istanbul when
Kurdish rioters set a city bus ablaze with a petrol
bomb.
Court officials said legal proceedings were in
progress against 171 people, of whom 135 were in
detention.
The prosecution has already charged suspects with
offences including membership in an armed
organization, damaging public property, preventing
public servants from carrying out their duties, and
breaching the law on meetings and demonstrations.
Ankara has accused the PKK, which has fought for
Kurdish self-rule in the region since 1984, of
deliberately pushing hundreds of children into
clashes with the police in a bid to discredit the
government.
The Kurdish conflict has claimed more than 37,000
lives since 1984 when the PKK, blacklisted as a
terrorist group by Ankara, the European Union and
the United States, took up arms for self-rule in the
southeast.
AFP
Southeast Turkey: Northern Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey)
Northern Iraq : South Kurdistan (Kurdistan-Iraq)
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