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From: C-afp@clari.net (AFP)
Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.france,clari.news.protests,clari.news.conflict.peace_talks,clari.world.europe,clari.news.issues,clari.news.conflict
Subject: Kurds protest Ocalan's arrest at Kosovo peace talks site
Organization: Copyright 1999 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
Message-ID: <Qkurds-france-protestURvTR_9FH@clari.net>
Lines: 24
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 6:26:52 PST
ACategory: international
Slugword: Kurds-France-protest
Threadword: kurds
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Xref: news.cs.columbia.edu clari.world.europe.france:28710 clari.news.protests:10018 clari.news.conflict.peace_talks:12832 clari.world.europe:44299 clari.news.issues:23263 clari.news.conflict:55778

  	  				 
   RAMBOUILLET, France, Feb 17 (AFP) - Between 200 and 300 Kurds on  
Wednesday protested here at the arrest of Kurdish leader Abdullah 
Ocalan, staging the demonstration outside the heavily-guarded 
chateau where Kosovo peace talks were underway. 
   Protesters said they were irked a million people in Kosovo could  
mobilize the international community into launching a peace effort, 
but no-one seemed to notice the plight of the Kurds, who were many 
times more numerous. 
   "In Kosovo, 400 villages are burned by Yugoslavia, while 4,000  
Kurdish ones are burned in Turkey," said Yalcin Ramazan, 29, a 
gardener who lives near Paris. 
   Protesters sported red, yellow and green paper headbands  
celebrating the Kurdistan Workers' Party's 20th anniversary, 
carrying a photograph of Ocalan, whose arrest Tuesday in Turkey 
sparked demonstrations, hostage-takings and arson attacks. 
   A few women clad in sequined green skirts and headcoverings held  
up a red PKK flag, joining mostly men chanting slogans such as "Free 
Ocalan" and "Yesterday Vietnam, today Kurdistan." 
   About 50 French riot police stood across from the chanting pack  
at the chateau's gates. 
   The demonstration went off peacefully, police said.  
  	   	

