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Rights group hails Turkish reforms but laments fate of jailed Kurdish MPs AFP Aug 7, 2002 An international human rights group welcomed Wednesday the recent democratization drive in Turkey but said it was disappointed the reforms had not addressed the plight of former Kurdish deputies in Turkish jails. In a move to boost Turkey's bid to join the European Union, the parliament passed Saturday a set of sweeping human right reforms, including the abolition of the death penalty in peace time and the legalization of broadcasts and courses in the language of the Kurdish minority. "We warmly welcome the courageous and principled measures this law contains," US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement. "However, the reform deliberately foreclosed legal challenge by Turkey's longest-serving political prisoners -- Kurdish former parliamentary deputies Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak -- whose unfair trial has been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights," HRW said. The four have been serving 15-year sentences since 1994 for aiding armed Kurdish rebels seeking self-rule in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey. HRW described the abolition of the death penalty as "truly significant" and the endorsement of Kurdish freedoms as "such a dramatic departure from previous policy that it could remove the taboo on minority languages and effect real change". The group said it
now expected the Turkish authorities to drop charges against dozens of Kurds who
demanded education in Kurdish.
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