Germany will not pursue PKK leader's extradition

Germany insisted yesterday that its decision to drop extradition proceedings against the Kurdish leader Mr Abdullah Ocalan did not mean the end of attempts to bring him to justice.

A German government spokesman, Mr Uwe-Karsten Heye, said Bonn had chosen not to pursue its attempt to have the PKK leader extradited from Rome on account of the changing political situation in Turkey.

Mr Ocalan faces the death penalty if he returns to Turkey, where he has been condemned as an "enemy of the state". An appeal court in Rome yesterday rejected Ankara's extradition warrant and the rebel leader has been placed under house arrest in the Italian capital.

He is charged in Germany with running an organisation responsible for murder and terrorism and with taking part in the murder of a disenchanted PKK member in Russelsheim in 1984.

Mr Heye said Turkey was taking steps towards abolishing the death penalty and he welcomed signs from Ankara of a more conciliatory approach to the Kurdish problem. "The federal government sees in this development a further, promising contribution to the successful fight against terrorism," he said.

Mr Heye denied that the decision to drop extradition proceedings against Mr Ocalan was a response to Kurdish demonstrations and hunger strikes in a number of German cities but there was clear relief in Bonn when the PKK leader yesterday ordered his supporters to end their protest.

Germany's new centre-left government appears determined to continue the policy of appeasement towards the PKK started under Dr Helmut Kohl. In return for an agreement by the PKK not to commit violent acts within Germany, Bonn has quietly released most Kurdish prisoners and refuses extradition requests from Turkey.

Ankara insisted yesterday that Mr Ocalan ought to be sent to Turkey to stand trial for terrorist offences, a position that is supported by the United States. But Turkey is unlikely to pick a fight with Bonn.

Mr Schroder and his Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, announced within days of their election victory in September that the new government hoped that Turkey could join the European Union sooner rather than later. But an end to human rights abuses and a successful resolution of the Kurdish question are prerequisites for a successful application to join the European club.

The Turkish Prime Minister, Mr Mesut Yilmaz, hung on to office yesterday despite defeat in a key parliamentary censure vote.