EU parliamentarians: 80,000 People Demand
Kurdish Leader Ocalan be Examined by Independent Doctors
The Associated Press
May 11, 2007
STRASBOURG,
France: More than 80,000 people have signed a petition calling on the
Council of Europe to send an independent team of doctors to the Turkish jail
where Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan is held to examine whether he is
being poisoned, a left-wing group in the European Parliament said Friday.
Ocalan's lawyers in Italy said that an analysis
of his hair showed large amounts of strontium and chromium, both of which are
toxic in high doses — an indicator of chronic poisoning. Turkish authorities
said tests on Ocalan showed no signs that he was being poisoned and called the
allegations "complete lies."
"So far, we have more than 80,000 signatures
from all over the world. People tried to reach us by post, mail, fax and by
phone, it was amazing," said German EU parliamentarian Feleknas Uca of the GUE/NGL
group uniting Europe's Communist and far-left parties.
Several dozen Kurds have been on a hunger
strike in Strasbourg for a month to demand that the council ensures an
independent medical investigation of the case. Some of them have been
hospitalized, prompting Terry Davis, the council's chairman, to urge them to end
the hunger strike.
The human rights watchdog's anti-torture
committee "is closely examining the situation regarding the detention of
Abdullah Ocalan in all its aspects," Davis said.
A mass rally of Kurds is planned in Strasbourg
on Saturday.
Ocalan, 58, is the leader of the Kurdistan
Workers Party, or PKK, and remains an influential figure for many of Turkey's
disaffected Kurds, and an object of intense hatred for many Turks.
He was initially sentenced to death after his
capture in 1999, but his sentence was commuted to life in prison after Turkey
abolished capital punishment in 2002. He is the sole inmate on Imrali, in the
Marmara Sea off Istanbul.
The PKK has waged war for autonomy in Turkey's
southeast since 1984. The group often stages cross-border attacks from bases in
neighboring Iraq and operates small bands of rebels inside Turkey.
