ANKARA, April 13 (AFP) -  Turkey's leading rights group urged the Council of Europe
Friday to put pressure on Ankara to find a solution to a hunger strike in jails across the
country as the protestclaimed its 10th victim in less than a month.

The Human Rights Association (IHD) sent a letter to the Strasbourg-based Council, calling
for an urgent intervention, the group's secretary-general Selahattin Esmer told AFP.

France, on the other hand, urged Turkey, a candidate for European Union membership
with a troubled record of human rights, to take speedy action to settle the problem.

"We would like to see this situation quickly resolved," foreign ministry spokesman
Bernard Valero said in Paris.

The appeal followed the death of Erol Evcil, jailed for membership in an armed far-left
group, who became the 10th inmate to perish in the protest, initiated last October against the
introduction of new jails with tighter security.

The inmates argue that the new jails, where cells for three inmates at most replaced
dormitories housing up to 60,  will facilitate ill-treatment and cause further social alienation.

Between 300 and 400 inmates are on a hunger strike with some 120 of them hospitalized
and a dozen reported in critical condition.

A meeting on Friday between Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk and civic repesentatives
yielded a glimmer of hope that the government could agree on a midway solution to prevent
further deaths.

The head of the Istanbul Bar, who participated in the meeting, told AFP there was hope to
reach a compromise in several days, even though a concrete formula had not been outlined
yet.

"The minister showed a real will to settle the problem. We are hopeful that a solution can be
found on the weekend," Yucel Sayman said.

Any possible compromise, however, is unlikely to include a return to the dormitory system,
which authorities categorically rule out as incompatible with security.

  IHD secretary-general Esmer also said that a reconciliatory move by the government could
be imminent.

"We maintain that isolation must end. This a minimum step to open the door for
reconciliation," he said.

The inmates have signalled that they could back down from their demand for the closure of
the new jails and agree to end the strike if the conditions of isolation are lifted, Esmer added.

At present some 200 inmates are staying in one-man cells, while more than 1,000 others are
in compounds for three people.

Turkish law prohibits prisoners who have been convicted on charges of "terrorism" from
being jailed together.

Legal amendments lifting that ban and granting additional rights to inmates have been
drafted, but parliament has yet to vote on them.

Many of the hunger-strikers have been jailed for membership of the outlawed Revolutionary
People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), which authorities accuse of masterminding the
protest.

DHKP-C is blamed for a series of violent attacks, which have claimed the lives of some 180
people, among them a former minister and several retired generals.

In an unsuccessful bid to break the protest, paramilitary troops raided 20 jails across Turkey
last December after mediation efforts failed.

The four-day crackdown resulted in the death of two soldiers and some 30 prisoners, many
of whom died by orchestrated self-immolation.

The government maintains the packed dormitories were the main reason behind lax security
in crowded jails, where inmates have often been able to smuggle in weapons and to use them
in frequent riots and hostage-taking incidents.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com