EIGHTEEN militant left wing prisoners were critically ill in Turkish hospitals yesterday following a two month hunger strike that ended at the weekend, according to human rights workers.
"There are about 18 people still in a critical condition," said Mr Husnu Ondul, general secretary of the Human Rights Association.
Eleven hunger strikers died before the protest was called off on Saturday after the new Islamist led government accepted some of the inmates' demands for improved prison conditions. A 12th prisoner died after the agreement was reached.
The Justice Minister, Mr Sevket Kazan, said the government would fulfil the demands, which include transferring some 100 prisoners from Eskisehir prison. He rejected calls to close the high security jail, dubbed "The Coffin" by inmates because of its single prisoner cells.
"The justice ministry is not bound by what has been signed. But I have seen the text and it is our duty to do what it says," Mr Kazan told reporters.
Some 300 far left inmates had gone on hunger strike to demand an end to maltreatment and to a policy of dispersal they claimed cut them off from family and legal counsel. Many of the protesters were close to death when the hunger strike ended and some were expected to have permanent health problems.
The Foreign Minister, Ms Tansu Ciller, earlier rebuffed western European criticism of Turkey's jail standards and human rights record, which came to the fore during the hunger strike.
Our government has made an effort to make improvements in the field of human rights since it came to power," a ministry statement quoted Ms filler as telling the French, German and Italian foreign ministers in a letter.
She sent a similar note to the European Commissioner, Mr Hans van den Broek, and the European Parliament Socialist group leader, Ms Pauline Green, who had threatened Turkey with a veto of EU funds over the hunger strike.
Turkey has invited a Council of Europe human rights watchdog group to visit Turkish jails, a foreign ministry spokesman told reporters.