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JOURNALIST SHOT IN PRO-KURDISH DEMONSTRATIONS

Turkish authorities are being urged to investigate the death of a young journalist in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, who was shot in the head two weeks ago during violent clashes between Kurdish demonstrators and security forces, report BIAnet, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF).

Ilyas Aktas, 24, died on 14 April 2006, two weeks after he was fatally wounded during a protest on 30 March. A volunteer reporter for the left-wing newspaper "Devrinci Demokrasi" ("Revolutionary Democracy"), he was covering a demonstration sparked by the killing of 14 Kurdish guerrillas by Turkish forces in March.

"Devrinci Demokrasi's" editor, Erdal Guler, said witnesses told him Aktas was hit when police opened fire on the crowd of demonstrators, some of whom had been throwing stones and Molotov cocktails. Cameraman Sakir Uygar, who works for the pro-Kurdish news agency Diha, was also shot but he is recovering in hospital, reports RSF.

A day before Aktas was shot, he was reportedly threatened by police, who told him "We know who you are. Watch your step, you'll see what happens", according to BIANet and RSF.

Human Rights Watch reports that the killing of 14 Kurdish rebels has set off protests in at least four other towns in southeast Turkey in which 13 or more people have reportedly been killed and hundreds detained.

The Turkish government has often been accused by human rights groups of committing abuses against the ethnic minority Kurds who make up the majority of the region's population.

A Human Rights Watch researcher investigating alleged abuses was detained without charges on 12 April in the town of Bingol and expelled from the country the next day.

Visit these links:
- BIANet: http://www.bianet.org/2006/04/01_eng/news77652.htm
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/mideast/turkey17apr06na.html
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=17061
- Human Rights Watch: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/04/12/turkey13171.htm
- Background Report on Turkey: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/01/18/turkey12220.htm