KURDS IN PRO-OCALAN PROTEST OUTSIDE UN BEIRUT HQ
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October 28, 2008
BEIRUT (AFP) — Hundreds of Kurds demonstrated outside United Nations
headquarters in Beirut on Sunday to protest against the alleged bad
treatment in prison of rebel Kurd leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The protesters, who began their march at Borj Hammoud, a mostly
Armenian district in the northeast of the city, waved Kurdish flags
and photos of Ocalan.
Many carried placards and chanted: ""By our soul, by our blood,
we sacrifice ourselves for you, oh chief.""
They stamped on the Turkish flag in front of the central Beirut
building of the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Western
Asia and issued a press release denouncing the ""inhuman treatment""
inflicted on their leader.
Lawyers for Ocalan, who heads the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK), said this month that their client has been mistreated by
warders on the northwest Turkish prison island of Imrali, where he
is the sole inmate.
Turkish authorities have denied the allegations, but they prompted
pro-Ocalan rallies, often generating violent clashes, in several
Turkish towns where Kurdish communities live.
The PKK took up arms for self-rule in east and southeast Turkey in
1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 44,000 lives.