EU ministers call for Ocalan trial

Brussels - EU foreign ministers called yesterday for the Kurdish rebel leader, Mr Abdullah Ocalan, to be tried by an international…

Brussels - EU foreign ministers called yesterday for the Kurdish rebel leader, Mr Abdullah Ocalan, to be tried by an international court under the auspices of the Council of Europe.

The Italian Foreign Minister, Mr Lamberto Dini, said consultations were underway within the pan-European organisation, which counts Turkey as one of its members, to establish "whether it would be possible to organise a fair trial." Meanwhile, police in Ankara have detained around 200 supporters of Turkey's biggest legal Kurdish party to try to halt a hunger strike in protest against a crackdown on Kurdish activism, party officials said yesterday.