RE: RE: A new draft law on hunger strikes.

[Sabri Oncu <soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Merhaba Cemil Bey,

I have no intention to promote anything. I don't think there is any solution
to any of these problems within the confines of this world-system we live in
and expect the conditions to get much worse: more wars, more crises, more
blood, more tears...

Apparently, we are looking at the world from very different angles. And
given this, I don't think there is any way you and I can reach an agreement.
So I leave this at that.

Respectfully,
Sabri Oncu


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Brownson, Jamil
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2001 3:12 PM
To: 'pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
>Subject: [PEN-L:19395] RE: A new draft law on hunger strikes.


sabri bey, I am confused by your posts unless you have some interest in
promoting the antiquated and inhumane conditions of old Turkish prisons
wherein inmates have no rights, not because of rules & regulations or
guards, but because of fellow prisoners and their gang run dormitories.

Have you seen or experienced these conditions? Have you seen the
conveniences for individual prisoners in the new prisons that conform to EU
standards and that are better than many US prisons?

Would you support the old inhumane conditions that forces inmates into the
clutches of some faction-gang that rules the dorms in totalitarian
conditions? do you support the criminal gangs and their bosses who use cell
phones & couriers to run their drug smuggling and kidnapping operations from
the protection of these dorms and their armed bodyguards?

No ideology, left or right, which has any truthful concern for human rights
or social justice, could possibly support the inmate-to-inmate terrorism
that runs rampant throughout these prisons.

In fact, Turkish police and prison guards are no less humane than their US
counterparts, albeit paid only a fraction of what US law enforcement gets.
That factor of poor pay is a big litmus test. While corruption runs
throughout Turkish society, there is also a grat degree of honesty and
integrity among the police and military, especially among ideological
Kemalists. If there were not such a degree of integrity, things would really
be hell, and violent anarchy reign supreme.

Other than driving in traffic, the most dangerous fact of Turkish life is
the extreme right, a mix between the Turkish-Islmaist synthesis, and the
Fascist Nationalists, both of whom integrate within the MHP political party.
But the political organization of disenfranchised empoverished and
underemployed youth through the network of local chapters of "hearths"
(Ocakbasi) & grey wolves" also seeps into both military and police
organizations even more insidiously than does the Islamist right. Turkey's
democratic socialists and left intelligencia were mostly broken or forced
out of the country by a rightist coalition, and by the extreme fanatic
leftists, many of whom are leftover Stalinists for whom "Peristroika" was a
sellout. While I am not sure of what contacts they have with Russian or
other regional fanatic & revanchist communists, these are definately not
"new leftists" nor open to any critical discourse, but rather hardline,
poorly educated but deeply indoctrinated and fanatic ideologues. Herein
meets the bain of Turkey's progress toward open democratic society, the
fanaticism on all extremism of the political spectrum, nationalist right,
religious right, and far left, all devoid of real intellectual leadership,
and closely allied with armed groups of thugs.

cemil cafecioglu-

-----Original Message-----
From: Sabri Oncu [mailto:soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2001 2:38 PM
To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [PEN-L:19392] A new draft law on hunger strikes.


Sorry for dumping this many articles about a single event on PEN-L,
however significant it may be for me. This will be the last one.
This excerpt is from the below news piece:

 "Meanwhile, the Turkish government on Tuesday submitted to parliament a
 draft law introducing jail terms for those encouraging inmates to go on
 hunger strikes, Anatolia news agency reported.

 The proposed legislation envisages jail terms of between two and four
 years for those "preventing inmates from taking food," an offence broad
 in scope that covers also acts such as encouraging and ordering hunger
 strikes and persuading inmates to join hunger strikes, Anatolia said.

 The jail terms are increased to between 10 and 20 years if the offence
 results in the death of a striker, the agency added.

 The draft also allows authorities to treat, hospitalize and feed
 hunger-strikers without seeking their consent if doctors establish that
 their lives are at risk or that their conscience is damaged."

I guess what they are saying is that you cannot hunger strike in this
country any more; killing yourself is not allowed, only we can kill you.


Sabri Oncu
soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx


+++++++++

Reuters; AFP. 6 November 2001. Turkish Activists Say Police Shot Hunger
Strikers; Turkey seeks jail terms for organizers of hunger strikes.

ISTANBUL and ANKARA -- Turkish leftists said on Tuesday four hunger
strikers were shot dead in a police raid in Istanbul, but officials said
the protesters had set themselves alight.

Police launched raids on Monday on homes in the Kucuk Armutlu area of
Istanbul, where leftists have been on hunger strike for months to
protest prison reforms.

Four bodies were taken away by police.

"They lost their lives from bullets fired by police," a statement from
Tayad, a group representing the hunger strikers' families, said. "Tens
of people were seriously hurt."

The raid was the latest attempt to deal with a protest that has left 42
people dead of starvation, further stained Turkey's human rights record
and sparked a suicide bomb attack in September that killed four,
including an Australian tourist.

A police spokesman confirmed the four deaths, but denied units had fired
on the protesters.

A police officer at the scene told Reuters on Monday the authorities had
found the victims already dead underneath their beds after security
forces entered the homes.

Police have given no further details of the injured.

Health Officials had said 10 people suffered burns and carbon-monoxide
poisoning after setting themselves on fire.

Witnesses in the Kucuk Armutlu district said security forces used
armored cars, teargas and batons to enter private homes and pull out
protesters.

Kucuk Armutlu was under tight security on Tuesday, with police checking
the identities of drivers and passers-by and turning away all but local
residents.

Meanwhile, the Turkish government on Tuesday submitted to parliament a
draft law introducing jail terms for those encouraging inmates to go on
hunger strikes, Anatolia news agency reported.

The proposed legislation envisages jail terms of between two and four
years for those "preventing inmates from taking food," an offence broad
in scope that covers also acts such as encouraging and ordering hunger
strikes and persuading inmates to join hunger strikes, Anatolia said.

The jail terms are increased to between 10 and 20 years if the offence
results in the death of a striker, the agency added.

The draft also allows authorities to treat, hospitalize and feed
hunger-strikers without seeking their consent if doctors establish that
their lives are at risk or that their conscience is damaged.