The Greek Prime Minister, Mr Costas Simitis, intends to write to other European Union leaders to explain how Greece harboured, and lost, the Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan. Mr Simitis, under criticism at home over Mr Ocalan's capture by Turkey after spending 12 days in Greek custody, said he would also ask his EU colleagues to take specific action to safeguard Mr Ocalan's rights and secure his fair trial.
Mr Simitis sacked his foreign, public order and interior ministers over the handling of the Ocalan case, seen as a fiasco in Greece, which sympathises with the Kurdish cause.
"Greece will take a series of immediate initiatives to protect Ocalan's rights and promote the political struggle of the Kurds," said the statement he issued after the new ministers were sworn in.
The outgoing ministers said Mr Ocalan was brought into Greece by pro-Kurdish sympathisers and forced on the government which tried and failed to find him a refuge before he was captured in Kenya and taken to Turkey. Greece had stopped short of giving him asylum, fearing further tensions with Turkey.
The office of the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, has asked Turkey to provide more information about the conditions under which Mr Ocalan has been detained, a UN spokesman said yesterday.
The request was made by the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Bertie Ramcharan, to Turkey's ambassador to the UN European headquarters in Geneva, Mr Tugay Ulucevik, during talks on Wednesday, according to the UN spokesman, Mr Jose Diaz.
Mr Diaz said that Mrs Robinson backed the appeal made by Mr Nigel Rodley of the UN, who has urged Turkish authorities to ensure that Mr Ocalan be granted access to legal counsel and that an independent monitoring system be put in place to verify that he is not mistreated.