ANKARA, May 26 (AFP)
Turkey has prepared for the trial Monday of its number one public enemy, Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, with the toughest security measures ever laid on here for a judicial process.
The government is determined there shall be no escape for Ocalan, who will answer charges of treason and separatism, in connection with the bloody insurgency which his Kurdistan Workers� Party (PKK) has been waging for the past 15 years in southeastern Turkey.
The trial before the state security court, will take place on the small prison island of Imrali in the Sea of Marmara in western Turkey.
Imrali, which is only 10 kilometres (six miles) by 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) has been �off limits� since Ocalan was taken there after being snatched in a Turkish commando operation in Kenya in February.
At the prison, where Ocalan is the only prisoner, nearly all the guards were replaced when he arrived, and were reinforced by a contingent of more than 500 paramilitary police.
The area round the island is patrolled non-stop by coast guards and access to Imrali is strictly banned to all unauthorised persons.
Before the trial starts, elite gendarmerie commandos, specially trained for missions in enemy territory, will be deployed to further beef up security on the island.
They will be equipped with the most sophisticated weaponry available, as well as infra-red night cameras able to detect any suspicious movement.
Army and police helicopters will patrol the skies around the island, which lies 50 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of Istanbul.
Army and police units have also been deployed round the town of Mudanya on the continent, the departure point for all boats leaving for Imrali.
Road blocks are to be set up on roads leading into Mudanya and the identities of all visitors will be checked before they are allowed to enter the town.
Journalists and other persons wither permits to travel to Imrali to cover the trial will be subjected to a minute search before being allowed to board the fast launches being brought in to ply between Imrali and Mudanya during the trial.
The court itself will sit in what used to be the prison cinema, which has been specially converted for the occasion. Gendarmes units will be responsible for security inside the courtroom, under rules governing state security trials.
Throughout his trial, Ocalan, will be held in a special cage of bullet-proof glass - the first time this procedure has never before been used in Turkey.
Ocalan is accused of seeking to set up a separate Kurdish state and under article 125 of the Turkish penal code, he faces the death penalty.
The authorities, whose attitude towards the Kurds is an intransigent as ever, have given no sign they intend to show the least leniency towards the PKK leader, despite the conciliatory tone he has adopted since his capture.
Officially, the �Kurdish question� does not even exist. For the Turkish state, the problem is one of �terrorism� and Kurdish unrest is put down to economic causes and the under-development of southeast Anatola.
The Kurdish language remains outlawed on radio and television and teaching Kurdish in schools is banned.
In the run-up to the trial, the interior ministry put out a list of expressions designed to replace the word �Kurd� in official statements, particularly on the state media.
�If the government viewed this trial as an opportunity to understand and to deal with the Kurdish problem rationally, this could be a very good opportunity,� said Doqu Ergil, director of the Tosav Foundation, an institute specialising in social issues.
�This opportunity is going to be wasted. The establishment does not want to change its position because it would have to change the whole legal and institutional basis of the system,� he added.
The authorities have turned a deaf ear to Ocalan�s calls for a democratic solution to the Kurdish problem.
It would be unthinkable for the Turkish state to sit down at the negotiating table with a group which for 15 years has advocated and fought for a separate state for ethnic Kurds.
Fears of separatism have haunted Turkish leaders ever since the birth of modern Turkey from the ashes of the the Ottoman empire.
As the PKK�s undisputed leader, Ocalan is blamed for all the consequences of the PKK rebellion; some 31,000 people dead, 3,000 villages evacuated by the authorities, more than 100 billion dollars spent fighting the insurgency, thousands of bereaved families and the opprobrium heaped on Turkey for its alleged human rights violations against the Kurds.
�Ocalan proposes to be an agent of peace, but the government does not want to grant him this opportunity... the government is quite determined to hang him,� Ergil said.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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