Two people on a month-long hunger strike against Turkish prison reforms have died, bringing the death toll from the fasts to 19, human rights workers said today.
The relative of a prisoner and an inmate who both began hunger strike protests late last year have died, an official of the Human Rights Association, which closely monitors the prison population, told reporters.
Some 800 inmates and relatives of prisoners are consuming little except sugared water to protest the transfer of mainly leftist inmates from large wards to smaller cells that prisoners fear will make them more vulnerable to abuse by jailers.
Turkish officials defend the new cells as necessary to break the hold that banned radical leftist groups have on the country's jails.
Last December, 30 prisoners and two soldiers died when Turkish forces stormed jails across the country after talks to end the mass hunger strikes reached an impasse.
Hundreds of the prisoners have been moved to the smaller cells since then. Turkish officials have said recently they could allow those prisoners more time in common areas to end the fasts.
The fasts have focused unfavourable attention on EU aspirant Turkey's human rights record and conditions in jails where torture has been documented. The Council of Europe last Thursday urged faster prison reform to avoid more deaths.