TURKEY: Govt to debate law on child protestors

Turkey's government opened a campaign Tuesday to soften an anti-terrorism law that has been used to jail Kurdish minors involved in violent protests, part of a wider initiative to expand the rights of minority Kurds and end a generation-old conflict.

The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan submitted a proposal to parliament to amend the law after critics said the anti-terrorism measure should not be used to prosecute youths who throw stones at police. In February, Turkish courts sentenced 17 Kurdish teenage demonstrators to prison terms of eight months to 10 years.

"We want the kids to be prosecuted by the juvenile courts," Justice Minister Sadullah Engin said. "We want the possibility of alternative punishments for the under 18s."

The proposal needs to be approved by a parliamentary judicial committee before a floor vote in coming weeks.

One of Turkey's key goals is to bring an end to fighting with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the EU and the United States. The rebel group seeks more rights and autonomy for Turkish Kurds, and launched attacks in 1984. Tens of thousands of people have died.

Turkey has jailed hundreds of minors, aged 15 to17, on charges of backing a terrorist organization for joining pro-PKK protests.

The stiff law was introduced by Erdogan's government in 2005 in a bid to prevent protests by youths who set up barricades and threw stones or firebombs at police during protests in towns and cities in the predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Nearly 500 teens were detained in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, in 2008 alone, according to the city's bar association.

Under the amendments, the minors would be prosecuted by juvenile courts instead of courts specialising in anti-terrorism cases. Prison sentences would be replaced by fines, and the youths could be made to enroll in vocational courses or in community help programmes.

Erdogan's government also planned to open debate on plans for greater rights for Kurds, despite opposition accusations that the governing party is making too many concessions to Kurdish rebels and threatening the country's unity.

Last month, authorities released a small band of Kurdish rebels who crossed into Turkey from bases in northern Iraq and surrendered in a peace gesture. The government hopes to persuade thousands of other PKK combatants to end their decades-long fight, but any reconciliation process is likely to be a lengthy one.

Kurds make up about 20 per cent of Turkey's more than 70 million people.

Further information

• 'Desperate' situation of children in Diyarbakır prison (19 May 2009)
• Campaign against children on trial (16 April 2009)
• Dozens of children jailed under terrorism laws (20 February 2009)
• Children's rights groups demand changes to terror law (2 June 2009)