Reuters
18-MAY-98
ANKARA, May 18 (Reuters) - An international human rights watchdog asked
the Turkish government on Monday to take serious steps to prevent future
attacks on human rights workers following the shooting of the country's
top
rights campaigner.
``We resolutely want you to take solid steps to prevent such events occurring
again,'' the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues said in a
letter sent
to Turkish President Suleyman Demirel and Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz.
Akin Birdal, head of Turkey's Human Rights Association (IHD), was shot
six
times in the chest and leg at his office last week following leaks to the
press
linking him to separatist Kurdish guerrillas. The IHD denies any links
to Kurdish
rebels.
The chairman of the Paris-based rights watchdog, Patrick Baudouin, read
out
the letter to Turkish leaders after visiting Birdal at the Ankara hospital
where he
is being treated.
``Our message is clear. Your words giving guarantees are not enough any
more.
From now on you have the duty of realising what you have said,'' Baudouin
said.
IHD officials say around a dozen members of the group have been killed
since it
was formed in 1986.
Birdal, also deputy chairman of the international rights group, has been
an
outspoken critic of rights abuses in Turkey and has accused the state of
conducting a ``dirty war'' against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels
in the
southeast.
More than 28,000 people have been killed in the conflict. Turkey's human
rights
record has often come under fire from the West. It was one of the factors
the
European Union cited for excluding the country from a list of potential
EU
candidates.