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| Europe |
| Kurdish Protesters, Turkish Police Clash |
| 2006-03-29 |
| ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Riot police fired water cannons and used pepper spray to disperse stone-throwing Kurdish rioters Wednesday in a second day of violence sparked by the killing of autonomy-seeking guerrillas in southeastern Turkey. The pro-Kurdish mayor of Diyarbakir, the largest city in the southeast, claimed two rioters were shot to death in the rioting that began Tuesday and was among the worst in decades. Authorities would not confirm any killing or gunshot injury. The Turkish army moved combat vehicles to the city's outskirts after clashes broke out Tuesday when thousands of protesters rampaged, hurling firebombs at armored police vehicles and smashing windows at a police station, after funerals for the Kurdish guerrillas killed by Turkish troops last week. About 200 rioters took to the streets again on Wednesday, blocking streets with burning car tires and hurling stones at riot police. They also smashed the windows of the local businesses and set a truck on fire before they were dispersed by security forces firing into the air and using a water cannon and tear gas. Paramilitary troops stationed outside the governor's office also quickly repelled a group of stone-throwing protesters. At least 36 police officers and paramilitary troops and six civilians were injured and 80 people were detained in the two days of violence, Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said. Four people with gunshot wounds were rushed to hospitals on Tuesday, hospital officials said. Mayor Osman Baydemir who is from a pro-Kurdish political party claimed that two people were killed and ``several people have been wounded by gunshots as a result of security forces' intervention.'' Authorities were still assessing damage in the city as municipality workers cleaned the wreckage of burned cars and broken glass littering the streets from the previous night. ``The aim of the perpetrators and rioters of this incidents is to destroy the unity of our country and the environment of safety,'' Aksu said. ``Our security forces will find and hand over the perpetrators, collaborators, provocateurs and their affiliates to justice and they will be given the punishment they deserved.'' Authorities boosted security in Diyarbakir. A long convoy of armored personnel carriers rumbled toward a major military base on the outskirts of the city as authorities called in police reinforcements from nearby cities. The slain guerrillas were among 14 killed by soldiers in the province of Mus in a two-day clash that ended Saturday. They belonged to the Kurdistan Workers Party, which has been fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey since 1984. Further west in Adana, some 3,000 Kurdish protesters attending the funeral of another slain guerrilla also clashed with police on Tuesday, prompting the officers to detain several people. Tensions have been running high in the southeast, where autonomy-seeking Kurdish guerrillas have escalated attacks recently. The fight for autonomy has killed more than 37,000 people. The Kurdistan Workers Party is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Turkey is under pressure from the European Union, which it wants to join, to grant more rights to its sizable Kurdish population that it does recognize as an official minority. But Ankara has ruled out any dialogue with the Kurdish guerrillas whom it regards as terrorists. Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Namik Tan urged Denmark to shut down a Danish-based Kurdish satellite television station, Roj TV, which reportedly encouraged Kurdish rioters during Tuesday's clashes in Diyarbakir. Turkey accuses Roj TV of being a mouthpiece for the PKK. Danish authorities say they are still investigating, while Roj TV insists it has no links to the rebels. |
| Posted by:Steve |