Turkey Arrests 29 Children For Pro-PKK Demonstration
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (News Agencies) - Twenty-nine children have been arrested by Turkish authorities for demonstrating in support of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a human rights group said Friday.
The Human Rights Association (IHD) called for the children, aged between nine and 16, to be freed immediately.
The youngsters were detained Tuesday in the town of Viransehir, in the mainly Kurdish southeastern province of Sanliurfa, for shouting pro-PKK slogans and were formally arrested Thursday, the IHD's Diyarbakir branch said in a statement.
It said parents had complained that some children had been mistreated while in police custody and called for an immediate investigation.
"The fact that the children were taken by police at midnight, handcuffed and interrogated is already inhumane treatment," the IHD said.
"We call on the authorities to investigate the torture claims and immediately free the children," it added.
The PKK has waged a 15-year armed struggle for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey's southeast. The conflict has claimed some 36,500 lives.
In September 1999, the group said it was laying down its arms and withdrawing from Turkey to seek a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish question.
But the Turkish army has played down the peace bid as a "ploy" and has vowed to hunt down the PKK.
