Imrali - The Kurdish rebel leader, Mr Abdullah Ocalan, on trial for his life for treason, yesterday blamed "uncontrollable rebel elements" in his Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) for attacks on civilian targets. He denied all personal responsibility for the attacks.
"There was an internal conflict in the PKK about attacks on civilian targets, which lasted from 1987 to 1996," the PKK leader told the Turkish court on the third day of his trial on the prison island of Imrali.
"I never ordered attacks on civilian targets. Attacks of that kind are the work of uncontrollable rebel elements in the PKK," he said.
He accused other countries, mainly Britain, of manipulating Turkey's Kurdish conflict for its own ends, but gave no specific examples.