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Turkish Police Raid on Hunger Strikers Leaves Four Dead
ISTANBUL, Nov 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Four people died Monday after armed Turkish police raided a house in Istanbul which was occupied by left-wing hunger strikers, news agencies reported.
Police said the four died from burns and carbon dioxide poisoning after the hunger strikers and their supporters set fire to the house, according to a report by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
However, a lawyer for the hunger strikers and a human rights group said it was unclear who started the fire, and that at least one person had been shot by police during the raid.
Earlier, AFP cited a Turkish news agency report that three of the strikers were shot and wounded as police raided houses and removed 10 extreme leftist protestors.
The Anatolia news agency quoted an anonymous police official as saying the security forces, backed by armored vehicles and bulldozers, entered the district to destroy barricades on the streets.
It said the barricades were set up by supporters of the hunger strikers who have been fasting for several months in support of a year-old hunger strike in Turkish prisons against jail conditions.
The police official said the hunger strikers and their supporters started a fire inside one of the houses.
He said police took out 14 injured people from inside the house, four of whom later died in hospital from burns and carbon monoxide poisoning.
The official said police had not used firearms during the operation and that some residents had pelted police with stones.
The Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD) said the victims were two men and two women. Anatolia identified one of the women, Arzu Guler, as one of the hunger strikers.
IDH spokesman Saban Dayanan told AFP after the visiting the site that the other dead woman, Sultan Yildiz, and the two dead men, Bulent Durga and Baris Kas, were activists taking care of the hunger strikers.
Dayanan, as well as lawyer Behic Asci, quoted witnesses as saying armed police attacked the house firing weapons.
"Witnesses said that some 1,000 police, including special forces, uniformed and plainclothes officers, moved into Kucukarmutlu, firing shots at the hunger strikers' houses from a distance of some 300 to 400 meters," Dayanan said.
As police approached the house, a supporter of the protestors set himself on fire and was later shot by police, he added.
"Just then flames erupted in the raided house, but it is not clear how the fire started. Some witnesses say those inside set themselves on fire, while others say the police set the house on fire," Dayanan said.
In a telephone interview with AFP, Attorney Asci said police raided only one of houses where the hunger strikers were staying.
"The house that was raided was completely burned," he said.
Both Dayanan and Asci said the police made arrests, but they were unable to give a figure as to how many people were detained.
The operation also left 10 people injured, health ministry official Osman Karaslan told Anatolia.
"The injured have all set themselves on fire and are under treatment for first and second degree burns," he said.
Anatolia also reported that police seized two computers and what were described as illicit documents.
The hunger strikers are ingesting sugared water and vitamins to help prolong their protest, which began last October. Strikers object to the introduction of a new prison system in which cells for a maximum of three people have replaced large dormitories for up to 60 inmates.
More than 1,000 prisoners have been transferred to the new jails since last December, when security forces raided 20 prisons across Turkey to break the hunger strike.
The four-day crackdown left 30 prisoners and two paramilitary police officers dead but failed to end the strike.
Prisoners and human rights activists claim that confinement in smaller units will alienate inmates from fellow prisoners and leave them more vulnerable to mistreatment and torture, which has been a problem in Turkish jails according to human rights groups.
Amnesty International's 2001 report on Turkey stated that torture of detainees - including beatings, electric shocks and sexual assaults - while in custody of police and gendarmes was widespread, expressing concern about the "regime of isolation" that could spread within the new system and contribute to abuses.
But the government has categorically refused to return to the dormitory system, arguing that the packed compounds were the main factor behind frequent riots and hostage-taking in its unruly jails.
The underground People's Revolutionary Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), a far-left group that has carried out a series of attacks in the past, is considered the main architect of the hunger strike.
The strike spread outside prisons as inmates, released due to their deteriorating health, continued to fast and were joined by other supporters.
So far, the strike has claimed 41 lives, including both prisoners and activists.
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