Boy, six, loses fight for life after Kurdish unrest

A BOY of six and two young men injured during clashes in the Kurdish-dominated south-east of Turkey have died in hospital, raising the death toll in three days of unrest to six.

The violent protests, which were sparked by recent killings of autonomy-seeking Kurdish guerrillas, have injured about 270 people.

Six-year-old Enes Ata was injured yesterday in the city of Diyarbakir, which has been hit by the region’s worst street violence in more than a decade. The boy died at a hospital, local officials said.

Turkish authorities have been trying to restore order in the Kurdish-dominated southeast without using excessive force, in a bid to avoid endangering the country’s bid to join the European Union by further tarnishing its human rights record. But they are also under intense pressure from nationalists, who want force used against the Kurds.

Turkey, where minority status is granted on the basis of religion rather than ethnicity, does not recognise its sizeable Kurdish population as a minority.

Senior military, police and civilian authorities said in a statement after an anti-terrorism meeting yesterday that they had decided to take “all necessary measures within the limits of laws and democracy to struggle with separatism and terrorism, and implement them with absolute determination”.

In an address to the nation, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged citizens “not to pay attention to the provocations and propaganda of the terrorist organisations”.

There has been a resurgence of violence since June 2004, when rebels declared an end to a ceasefire, accusing Turkey of not responding in kind and refusing rebel calls for dialogue.

The EU has demanded that Turkey grant Kurds greater rights and stabilise the country’s south-east. The government has granted limited rights to broadcast in the Kurdish language, and teach the language, but these rights have been largely deemed unsatisfactory by the Kurds.