(correct version) An Angry Look

[root at newsdesk.aps.nl]

From: newsdesk at newsdesk.aps.nl (Newsdesk Amsterdam)
Subject: Re: (correct version) An Angry Look At German Reality
Reply-To: root at newsdesk.aps.nl

--------------- Forwarded from : Arm The Spirit <ats at etext.org> ----------------

KURD-A Article Series: The Tears Of War In Kurdistan
January 22, 1995


Kurdish Destiny?
An Angry Look At German Reality

by Susan Brand

     Last summer, H., a young Kurd who had lost both his feet and
some of his fingers in the liberation struggle in Kurdistan, was
arrested in a German hospital.
     Who is he? How could this happen?
     H. was born in Kurdistan and came to Europe as a youth. Here
he joined the PKK and four years later he decided to return to
his homeland and go "to the mountains" as a guerrilla fighter.
     In the mountains of Kurdistan, winters are extremely harsh,
and H. suffered such extreme frostbite on his hands and feet
while he was in the fighting areas that his comrades decided it
was necessary to amputate his legs, without medical support,
beneath the ankles. Without this operation, which was carried out
without anaesthetics, H. would have died.
     After a few months, H. was able to make it back to Germany
in order to get better medical treatment for his legs. Of course,
shortly thereafter he wished to return to Kurdistan and to the
struggle. But for the time being he spent his time with Kurds in
Germany and he told them stories about the struggle in mountains
in order to thereby awaken and strengthen their resistance, too.
     Germany's federal prosecutor's office used this as evidence
that he was part of the "European leadership" of a "terrorist
organization within the PKK". He was arrested at the hospital,
with a complete disregard for his medical state.
     H. is being kept in strict isolation detention, which means
no contact with other prisoners, newspapers, no books, and only
one hour of closely monitored visits each month, with a
translator present. This amounts to extreme psychological torture
for H.
     At the beginning of last year, H. set his cell on fire to
protest these conditions and his lack of medical attention, but
also to protest the oppression, persecution, and criminalization
of Kurds in Germany.
     This protest from a seriously disabled and sick political
prisoner was not answered by a review of his prison conditions,
but rather with a transfer to a psychiatric prison. One can only
guess what that will mean for H.
     Last week, charges were filed against H. and three other
prisoners, including a seriously ill woman.
     No one can say if H. will live to see the end of his trial.


Translated by:

Arm The Spirit
P.O. Bx 6326, Stn. A
Toronto, Ontario
M5W 1P7  Canada

E-mail: ats at etext.org

Berxwedan jiyane!


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