During the week of December 19-26, 2000, 10,000 Turkish soldiers violently occupied 48 prisons to end two months of hunger strikes and ?death fasts? by hundreds of political prisoners. The hunger strikers were protesting the state?s plan to transfer its prisoners from large wards to US-style ?F-type? cells holding one to three occupants. Operation ?Return to Life? ? which left at least 31 prisoners and two soldiers dead ? lasted a few hours in most prisons, and up to three days at one prison. Eight prisoners were reportedly ?disappeared,? and at least 426 prisoners have been wounded. 1,005 prisoners have been transferred to F-type cells.
The armed operation ostensibly aimed to ?rescue? members of illegal, radical left organizations from ?forced? starvation at the hands of their leaders. But the official number of prisoners conducting death fasts has reportedly increased to 353 since the operation, up from 282. Unofficial reports say that up to 2,000 prisoners are starving themselves, with the active support of 10,000 others. Human rights groups suspect security forces of burning prisoners with firebombs during the operation. According to the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, some bodies were buried without being identified, and other deceased prisoners? families and lawyers were not admitted to the autopsies.
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