Turkish prison massacres

—By Amos Kenigsberg

| Wed Jan. 10, 2001 12:00 AM PST

In Turkey, recent police and military attacks on inmates have demonstrated to the world that notoriously hellish conditions within Turkish prisons continue to this day.

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According to the SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN, the entire fracas began when Turkish prison authorities announced their intentions to take inmates out of large dormitory-like wards and move each prisoner into his own cell. Fearing that it would allow the guards to go further with their already legendary torture sessions, some inmates began a hunger strike to demonstrate their opposition.

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Angered by the protests, military and police forces literally stormed prison wards to get at hiding inmates, at times using bulldozers and tanks to get to some of the fasting prisoners. Official reports acknowledge that some inmates set themselves aflame during the attacks and authorities shot and killed at least one burning protestor. The article goes on to document some of the other almost unbelievable problems running rife in the Turkish "correction" system.

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