Police disperse hunger strike protestors

Police detained 24 of about 100 protestors who had gathered to commemorate the beginning of the hunger strike in 2000, which cost the lives of more than 65 inmates and their supporters.
The long running hunger strike, mainly by imprisoned members of outlawed left wing groups, was to protest against Turkish authorities planning to move prisoners from dormitory style accommodation to cell blocks.
Inmates and their supporters claimed that the move would result in an increase in human rights abuses. Authorities said that the step was essential to bring Turkey’s prisons up to the standard of those in Europe and to stop inmates controlling the prisons.
According to Turkey’s Human Rights Association, only seven inmates are still taking part in the hunger strike.