Brussels protest against F-Type prisons and Iraq war

As of today, the 839th day of the hunger strike by political prisoners in Turkey, 104 prisoners as well their relatives and friends have lost their lives in a fast to the death to oppose the prisoners' conditions of detention.

Several thousands of these prisoners have been subjected to a bitter and murderous form of isolation in prison since December 19, 2000, the day Turkey's military launched a bloody assault on the country's prisons in order to force the prisoners into « F-Type » isolation cell prisons.

This isolation leaves prisoners vulnerable to ill-treatment at the hands of the prison guards, depersonalises them and destroys them gradually, both psychologically and physically.

Isolation in itself is a severe form of torture which destroys the mind of prisoners. This torture was developed by the USA, adopted by various European countries (QHS in France, FIES in Spain, the H Blocks in British-occupied Ireland, Stammheim in Germany) then exported to vassal states like Turkey where there are very bitter socio-political conflicts.

In view of the imminent threat of war and destruction hanging over Iraq, the introduction of these F-Type prisons in neighbouring Turkey is hardly a coincidence.

Indeed, these F-Type prisons play an essential role in annihilating any form of opposition to the aggressive and war-mongering plans of the United States. It is important to note that 90% of the population of Turkey are opposed to the war. Turkey has about 10,000 political prisoners who are traditionally the moral conscience and sensitivity of the people. Indeed the majority of these prisoners were arrested and convicted for standing up for the bread, work, dignity and justice of the people, as well as for the independence of their country as opposed to interference and occupation by the Americans.

Exterminating these prisoners would make Turkey an indispensable haven of « peace» for the US Empire.

Indispensable, because, isolated as it is in the region, the US-British alliance needs the strategic collaboration of Turkey, whose army is the second largest in NATO and which is literally covered in US military bases and airfields that US warplanes continually use to launch attacks against Iraq.

Consequently, the political prisoners, who continue to die in Turkey's jails, are in the same trench with the people of Iraq who are being faced with genocide. That is why both deserve concrete and active solidarity.

To attract attention to the slaughter of political prisoners, to demand that the system on prison isolation be lifted and to denounce the complicity of the Ankara government in the conquest of Iraq by the US-British alliance, we are demonstrating this Saturday February 8 at 2 pm, starting from the Schuman roundabout in Brussels.

The demonstration will stop close to the Embassy of Turkey in order to make the following demands on the Turkish government:

Stop the massacre of political prisoners in Turkey!
Stop prison isolation!
No to the American war!
Let us not allow Turkey to become the HQ of the US Empire!
Close down all the US bases in Turkey!

arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)