Kurds end hunger strike

By Jennifer Thompson

An August 20 statement by the Solidarity Bureau in Brussels declared the end of a hunger strike by 10,000 Kurdish prisoners in Turkish jails and hundreds of supporters in other countries. It said that the strike, begun on July 14, had attracted significant interest and support worldwide. The hunger strikers, their relatives and democrats in Turkey, Kurdistan and the Kurdish diaspora demanded that the Turkish army end its dirty war in Kurdistan and comply with the Geneva Conventions.

The day before the strike ended, around 100 children between the ages of five and 15 were arrested by Turkish police in Istanbul for demonstrating in support of the hunger strike.

Four people died during the hunger strike, including Gulnaz Baghistani, whose heart failed after German police attacked hunger strikers in Bonn. "The hostile attitude of the German police to the Kurdish hunger strikers has exposed German-Turkish collaboration in the war against the Kurdish people", said the bureau.

From GLW issue 200