DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - A Turkish court sentenced a Syrian woman to 12-1/2
years in jail Tuesday for planning a suicide bomb attack on behalf of Kurdish guerrillas.

Dijvin Ahmet, 27, was accused of belonging to the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party, known
here as the PKK, which has waged a 16-year armed campaign for self-rule in Turkey's
mainly Kurdish southeast. Fighting has claimed more than 30,000 lives.

Ahmet denied the charges and told the court she came to Turkey in 1994 for medical
treatment, a court official said.

Prosecutors said she was trained by PKK forces in Mardin province, which shares a border
with Syria, and was preparing for a suicide bombing at the time of her arrest in 1999.
Authorities did not say what the target was.

Violence in the impoverished southeast has dropped off sharply since the 1999 capture of
PKK commander Abdullah Ocalan, who has called on his followers to withdraw from
Turkey.

Ocalan now awaits a European Court of Human Rights ruling on his death sentence from an
island prison where he is the sole inmate.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com