ISTANBUL, Nov 25 (AFP) - The pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HADEP)
 Saturday denounced more than 100 arrests of its members they say are meant to hinder
 Sunday's party congress, a HADEP leader told AFP.

 "For several days, our members have been victims of arrests and pressure of all kinds in order to
 reduce participation at our congress and it is an attack on free movement," said Ali Riza
 Yurtsever, HADEP deputy secretary general.

 The president of HADEP's regional branch in Adana in southeast Turkey and eight colleagues
 were arrested Thursday. He and three others were released Friday. All eight face charges of
 "helping and propagating an illegal organization."

 Some 100 party members and sympathizers were arrested Monday in Van in the southeast.

 The arrests began on November 19, when the party denounced the death sentence for Kurdish
 rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.

 HADEP won most mayorships in southeast Turkey, which is majority Kurdish, in 1999.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com

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