Sir, - Since the detention of Mr Ocalan by Turkey there have been mass arrests of the leaders and members of the People's Democracy Party (HADEP) and of the Human Rights Association. The Turkish police accuse them of disseminating propaganda for the PKK. The Human Rights Association and HADEP have been insisting that Mr Oclan should receive a fair trial.
Mr Ocalan's lawyers, one of whom has already resigned because of death threats, issued a statement saying that "as far as we are concerned, in the past week, there have been grave infringements of the law, both with regard to our client and to the defence procedure since the undertaking of the role of defence lawyers." They say they could only meet with Abdullah Ocalan in an interrogation room and in the presence of two masked soldiers who would record the interview. The lawyers also say they were attacked by mobs of plainclothes police on February 24th and footage of the attack was broadcast on national television. In the highly hostile atmosphere surrounding Mr Ocalan's arrest this has resulted in death threats and attacks on the lawyers' homes and families.
There seems to be no effort or even pretence by the Turkish Government that Abdullah Ocalan will be given a fair trial. It is incumbent therefore, on the United Nations Commission for Human Rights, on the European Union and on the Irish Government to intervene to insist that Mr Ocalan's detention and trial be taken over by an international court. - Yours, etc.,
Anne McCluskey, Kurdistan Solidarity Ireland, Upper Camden Street, Dublin 2.