Around the World

Around the World

Turkey to stop protests, rebels

The capture of Ocalan continued to fuel Kurdish protests in Europe for the third day, particularly in Germany, where it was feared the Kurdish conflict would spill over onto its soil.

Turkey saw its most violent protests yet when pro-Kurdish demonstrators and police clashed in the southern city of Ceyhan, injuring three policemen and one demonstrator, the Anatolia news agency said.

The Turkish military released a video yesterday showing Ocalan being led from a ship, his head covered by a hood, onto the island of Imrali, in the Sea of Marmara, where he was made to pose in front of a line of Turkish flags. Turkish stations ran the footage with a caption reading, "This is the image Turkey has been waiting for the past 15 years."

Police, meanwhile, led sweeps that, according to the independent Human Rights Association, have netted as many as 750 Kurdish activists since Tuesday in Istanbul and the southeast, the heartland of Ocalan's guerrilla war since 1984.

With Ocalan's rebel Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, apparently leaderless, the military kept up its latest incursion into neighboring northern Iraq in pursuit of the rebels, who have bases there.

Turkish troops -numbering 10,000 according to newspapers -and backed by helicopters and warplanes, chased Ocalan's fighters in northern Iraq for a fourth day. They drove as far as six miles into the country, an Iraqi Kurdish group said.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said the government would renew a call to rebels to surrender, assuring them that the Parliament would pass a law providing lenient punishment after elections in April.

Fallout was heavy from the Turkish commando operation that snatched Ocalan from Greek diplomatic hands in Nairobi, Kenya on Monday.

Three Cabinet ministers, including the foreign minister, were forced to resign in Athens, and in Nairobi, the Cabinet was reshuffled.

Even tiny Luxembourg felt reverberations. It announced it was tightening its borders to prevent angry Kurds, who have stormed Greek and other embassies in more than 20 major European cities to protest the capture, from spilling in.

Ocalan was brought to Turkey on Tuesday after Turkish special forces snatched him away from Nairobi, where he was staying in the Greek ambassador's residence.

Three state security court prosecutors interrogated Ocalan on the four-square-mile island, where he is detained alone following the hasty transfer of all other inmates at the prison.

Ecevit said a trial would begin soon. Ocalan faces terrorism charges - and a possible death sentence - over the 14-year war that the PKK has led to win autonomy in southeast Turkey. Some 37,000 people have died in the conflict

State security courts include military judges, and the European human rights court has questioned whether they are democratic. But Ecevit defended the courts.

"No one has the right to doubt the independence of the Turkish judiciary system," he said.

However, one of Ocalan's lawyers, Britta Boehler, said she was "absolutely sure that he (Ocalan) is being tortured and mistreated."

Meanwhile, the last embassy seizure in Europe ended yesterday when Kurds occupying the Greek mission in London surrendered to police.

Some 60 Ocalan supporters forced their way into a U.N. building in Vienna, and held a two-hour sit-in before leaving. In Iran, police blocked a group of Kurds from storming a Turkish consulate near the Turkish border.

In Germany, home to Western Europe's largest Kurdish community, Kurds attacked eateries run by Turks in Heilbronn and Muenster, beating six people.

Three Kurds were shot dead by Israeli guards Wednesday as they tried to storm the Israeli consulate in Berlin, after reports Israel helped Turkey track down Ocalan. Israel denies the reports.

Mexican soccer star's father kidnapped

Jorge Campos, idol of soccer-mad Mexicans, flew back to Mexico yesterday from a tournament in Hong Kong to take part in the hunt for his 65-year-old father, Alvaro Campos.

Wishing the younger Campos well, the coach of Mexico's national soccer team captured the anger of many Mexicans. "Kidnapping is the worst crime, because it attacks the emotions of the family," Coach Manuel Lapuente said, "and in this case it's worse still because it affects the entire soccer family."

02-19-99