DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people gave an emotional farewell
on Thursday to a Turkish police chief and five officers shot dead in an ambush blamed on
Islamist militants.

The mass gathering in Diyarbakir city appeared an expression of popular fears that the
shootings might jeopardize more than a year of relative calm in the mainly-Kurdish
southeast.

The attack was the first major bloodshed in Diyarbakir since guerrillas of the Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) announced acease-fire in 1999 after a long fight for Kurdish
autonomy.

The gathering also appeared an expression of popular affection for youthful police chief
Gaffar Okkan, whose two-and-a-half year tenure coincided with an easing of tight security in
the city.

``Gaffar, you will never die. You live on in our hearts,'' read a placard.

Hundreds chanted ``Damn terrorism,'' ``Martyrs never die'' and ''The Motherland will not be
divided.''

The finger of blame for the killings, however, was pointed at the armed Islamist Hizbullah
group.

Mourners led by Interior Minister Saadettin Tantan threw white carnations over the six
coffins, draped in the red Turkish flag, and borne by white-helmeted paramilitary police.

The bodies of Okkan and another officer were later taken to Ankara where Prime Minister
Bulent Ecevit joined senior politicians in a minute of silence at the Interior Ministry.

The six were killed on Wednesday night. Investigators found hundreds of spent bullet cases
and two unexploded hand grenades at the scene.

Authorities rounded up dozens of people but would not say which group they believed was
responsible.

Suspicions focused on Hizbullah, target of a police crackdown led by Okkan in the last year.
The attack was different in style from past PKK actions.

Emergency Governor Vows Action

Hizbullah is suspected of up to 150 killings since the mid-1980s, largely of Kurdish business
leaders and PKK sympathizers. Turkey cracked down a year ago, killing the group's leader
in a house in Istanbul.

Dozens of bodies of missing people, clearly tortured before death, have since been dug up in
gardens and remote areas.

The focus of Hizbullah attacks on PKK sympathizers led some to suspect state toleration of
the group at the height of the guerrilla conflict. Ankara denies this.

If carried out by Hizbullah, Wednesday's attack would mark a dramatic new challenge to
state power, and authorities immediately showed they were ready to pick up the gauntlet.

``What you have done has only increased public hatred of you and the eagerness and power
of the authorities to wage the fight against you,'' Diyarbakir's emergency rule Governor
Gokhan Aydiner told the cheering crowd.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com