Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

Turkish soldiers end prison siege with intense tear gas bombardment
by Ottawa Citizen - December 22
Posted: Saturday, December 23, 2000 10:55 am CST

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Soldiers bombarded defiant inmates with tear gas Friday, forcing 430 to surrender and completing a four-day crackdown on prisons that left at least 26 prisoners and two soldiers dead.

The inmates at Istanbul's Umraniye prison had been the last to hold out after some 5,000 soldiers began storming 20 prisons Tuesday. The crackdown aimed to impose control on prison wards where left-wing inmates were holding a hunger strike to protest government prison reforms.

After days of firing tear gas into the facility to little effect, soldiers intensified their assault Friday. They cut holes in the roof and lobbed in so many gas canisters that at least 19 ambulances were needed to evacuate soldiers and prisoners suffering gas inhalation.

Four inmates were killed during clashes at the prison Friday and the body of a fifth inmate was found. Two more bodies were found at other prisons and another inmate died in a hospital - raising the death toll from the crackdown to 26 prisoners and two soldiers, reports said.

Private NTV television said at least 50 inmates were injured in Friday's clashes.

Ozgur Tayad, a prisoners' support group, said the death toll was much higher but gave no figures.

Most of the inmates set themselves ablaze and burned to death rather than surrender. But at least five of the bodies bore gunshots, an autopsy report disclosed.

Inmates in Turkey's prisons launched a hunger strike two months ago to protest government plans to move them from dormitory-style wards to prisons with smaller cells, where inmates say they will be more vulnerable to abuse.

The government had said it was vital to regain control of the prisons, where left-wing, Kurdish and Islamic groups often run their wards like political indoctrination centres, barring guards from entry and smuggling in weapons, mobile phones, fax machines and laptop computers with internet access.

The prisons are also overcrowded, with wards housing up to 100 people.

Soldiers have been lobbing tear gas canisters into Umraniye prison for four days before intensifying their assault Friday. Some inmates were reportedly wearing makeshift gas masks.

Hundreds of soldiers, some holding plastic riot shields, surrounded Umraniye on Friday. During the night, smoke billowed from the prison as inmates inside set fire to mattresses and blankets, resisting calls to surrender.

A day earlier, inmates had vowed to fight until "death or victory."

"We hope this meaningless action will be ended before it turns into madness," Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk said.

On Thursday, 158 inmates at Canakkale prison surrendered. Prisoners at the 18 other prisons were overwhelmed by soldiers or surrendered on Tuesday.

The government said an amnesty law that went into force Friday would set free some 35,000 inmates and help authorities divide wards into one- or three-person cells.

Critics complain the amnesty sets free common criminals, many convicted of serious offences, while keeping in custody those who run afoul of Turkey's strict political laws. Barred from early released are prisoners who opposed the state, such as Islamic, Kurdish or leftists.

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