DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, March 20 (AFP)  Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan
 has issued an appeal to Kurds to mark their new year, Newroz, on Wednesday peacefully.

 The appeal was issued through his lawyer from the Turkish jail where he is under a death
 sentence for treason

 In the past the festival has often been marred by bloodshed. But the majority Kurds in the
 southeastern city of Diyarbakir hope this year it will pass off peacefully.

 Lawyer Irfan Dundar, who pays Ocalan regular weekly visits at the prison island of Imrali in
 northwestern Turkey, said the Kurdish leader "appeals on the Kurds to celebrate Newroz in a
 spirit of peace, unity and brotherhood."

 "He underscores the necessity to refrain from acts that could provoke violence," said Dundar.

 Authorities in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeastern provinces said they had stepped up
 security measures ahead of the feast but were also doing all they could to ensure the
 celebrations go ahead peacefully, according to officials in Diyarbakir.

 The authorities have allocated an area several kilometers outside Diyarbakir capable of hosting
 up to 60,000 people for the festivities.

 They have also allowed the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP), for a second year
 in a row, to organize the festivities in Diyarbakir and neighboring Batman.

 Taking "ecological" considerations into account, officials in Batman have distributed wood to
 residents for the traditional Newroz fires to try to stop people burning tyres which let off polluting
 smoke.

 The tradition stems from a legend dating back to the first revolt of the Kurdish people -- against
 the ancient Persian ruler Dehaq -- when they started fires in the mountains.

 Newroz has in the past triggered deadly clashes between security forces and Ocalan's
 outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which used the occasion to press its campaign for
 Kurdish self-rule in the southeast region.

 In 1992 about 50 Kurds were killed by police during violent demonstrtations in several
 southeastern cities.

 The 15-year Kurdish conflict in the southeast has subsided considerably since September 1999
 when, in response to peace calls from Ocalan, the PKK announced it was laying down its arms
 and withdrawing from Turkish territory.

 Since 1984, when the PKK began fighting for Kurdish self-rule, the conflict has claimed some
 36,500 lives.

 Newroz is also marked in western Turkish cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Mersin and
 Adana, home to millions of Kurdish migrants.

 Newroz, a pagan festival of Zoroastrian origin, marks the awakening of nature at the March 21
 equinox.

 It is also celebrated in Iran and other Muslim communities in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com