Turkey: Three Dead In Izmir Prison

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

From: Arm The Spirit <ats at etext.org>
Subject: Turkey: Three Dead In Izmir Prison Riot

Three Dead In Izmir Prison Riot

      ISTANBUL, Sept 22 (Reuter) - A Turkish prisoner injured in a
riot in an Izmir prison died in hospital on Friday, raising the
number of inmates killed in the clashes to three, police said.
    Turkish state television reported that four people were
killed as a result of Thursday's rioting in Buca prison, but a
police spokesman said he could only confirm three deaths.
    ``The number of those killed in the riot has risen to three,
but hospital police cannot confirm reports of four dead,'' the
spokesman told Reuters by telephone.
    Two prisoners were reported killed on Thursday. Police told
the state-controlled Anatolian news agency that a leftist urban
guerrilla died of his wounds in hospital on Friday.
    Anatolian said 40 prisoners and 15 gendarmes were injured in
clashes that broke out when gendarmes were sent in to take
control of cells where leftist and Kurdish prisoners had set up
barricades to stop guards from counting them.
    The prisoners, who set their beds on fire when the gendarmes
entered the cells, had refused for three days to be counted by
guards in protest against poor conditions, .
    The Istanbul branch of the independent Human Rights
Association issued a statement accusing gendarmes of using
excessive force to quell the riots.
     Buca prison has been the site of numerous riots, most
recently in July when 20 prisoners and guards were wounded in a
riot by left-wing urban guerrilla prisoners.