Turkish police detain Kurd party members 

TUNCELI, Turkey (Reuters) - Police detained 21 members of Turkey's only legal Kurdish
Party Friday when they attempted to protest against the arrests of thousands of Kurds last
weekend during World Peace Day, local officials said.

Fifty members of the People's Democracy Party (HADEP), gathered in the center of the
southeastern town of Tunceli, an official who declined to be named told Reuters. Police first
warned the group the protest was not permitted.

"Twenty-one people, including the chief of the HADEP Tunceli branch office Alican Unlu,
were detained after refusing to heed police warnings," he said.

Police used batons to disperse the rest, he said.

In a separate incident Friday in the mainly-Kurdish regional capital Diyarbakir, paramilitary
police raided offices of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey and confiscated materials,
but made no arrests, a security official in the city told Reuters.

HADEP sought to organize a large World Peace Day demonstration last Saturday in the
capital Ankara, but was denied permission.

Authorities apparently feared demonstrations could be in support of Kurdish guerrilla leader
Abdullah Ocalan and his outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a
17-year-long campaign for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

The fighting killed more than 30,000 people but has dropped off since 1999 when Ocalan
ordered PKK fighters to withdraw from Turkey and the part to become a political force.

HADEP eventually cancelled the rally, but thousands of supporters staged protests in
Ankara and other cities. Protesters clashed with police and were taken into custody.

A state security court in Diyarbakir ordered the arrests of 12 senior HADEP members
Thursday for allegedly shouting pro-PKK and pro-Ocalan slogans during last week's
demonstration, a security official said.

It was not immediately clear what charges the 12 face.

World Peace Day on Sept. 1 has become a traditional protest day for activists seeking
greater rights for Turkey's 12 million Kurds.

HADEP, which campaigns for Kurdish cultural rights, faces a possible legal ban for
allegedly serving Ocalan's guerrillas.

Ocalan is in prison awaiting the result of his appeal to a European court against the death
sentence imposed on him.

Turkey refuses to negotiate with the PKK, calling it a "terrorist" organization, and sees the
rebel withdrawal as a ploy to save Ocalan from execution.
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