KURDISH LEADER MAY BE IN SA

KURDISH rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan applied for a visa to South Africa before leaving Italy at the weekend, the Anatolia news agency reported on Monday. His whereabouts are at present unknown. The report quoted anonymous security sources as saying they received information that Ocalan went to Moscow after leaving Rome on Saturday and then moved on to another country. The sources gave South Africa as one of the countries where the 49-year-old leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is likely to have gone. They said it was also possible Ocalan had gone to Libya. The PKK has been leading a separatist campaign for self-rule in south-eastern Anatolia since 1984. The conflict has claimed an estimated 30000 lives. Ankara regards Ocalan and his PKK as “terrorist” and refuses to negotiate with them.