Turkish civic groups and international human-rights watchdogs urged Turkey today to seek an end to a mass hunger strike against prison conditions in which 17 people have died and dozens more are gravely ill.
Some 800 prisoners and prisoners' relatives are on hunger strikes to demand that Turkey drop plans to move mainly leftist inmates from dormitory wards to cell-based jails where they say they will at greater risk of torture.
The government has vowed it will never negotiate and accuses terrorists of orchestrating the hunger strikes.
But the deaths of 14 inmates and three relatives of prisoners have increased pressure on Turkey to take action to ward off more deaths. Activists say 50 people are on the verge of dying of starvation.
The Justice Ministry said on Tuesday the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) had visited Turkey last week to meet government officials and prisoners' advocates.
The CPT delegation expects urgent actions to be taken to bring to an end the hunger strikes, the ministry quoted the committee as saying.
The ministry also said the CPT welcomed draft legislation that would give some prisoners access to communal areas in jails in a bid to end the protest.
The government today sent parliament two amendments to an antiterrorism law to allow prisoners limited time in recreational areas, such as sports halls and libraries, in the so-called F-type jails which have cells that hold between one and three people.
Some activists have criticised the changes because they only apply to inmates who agree to attend training programmes. Those imprisoned for their political views would resist such rehabilitation, rights workers say.