OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday 4.155pm.
THE South African government on Tuesday joined international calls for the Turkish government to commute Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan’s death sentence.
Ocalan, head of the Kurdish Workers’ Party, was sentenced to death by a Turkish court on Tuesday morning for treason.
The department of foreign affairs said in a statement that in keeping with South Africa’s constitutional principles, the country did not believe in the death sentence.
“It is noted that there will be a judicial review, but irrespective of what the outcome will be, the South African government calls on the Turkish government to commute the death sentence.”
The SA Communist Party also urged Turkey to reconsider the planned execution.
While the eyes of the world were focused on the imperial aggression and intra-ethnic conflict in Yugoslavia, the ongoing ethnic genocide in Turkey had been all but ignored, SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande said.
The decision to execute Ocalan typified the approach of the Turkish authorities in handling the legitimate struggles and grievances of the Kurdish people.
“The Turkish authorities need to address the legitimate demands of the Kurdish people and understand that Abdullah Ocalan has a central role to play in any solution,” Nzimande said.