(30 May 1999) Turkish/Nat
Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan goes on trial on Monday in Turkey for treason.
Turkey's most wanted man was captured in February after waging a 15-year guerrilla war for Kurdish independence.
Lawyers for the Kurdish rebel leader are urging Turkey to use the trial to pave the way for a peaceful solution of the Kurdish war.
Turkey has imposed a full-scale security crackdown in advance of the trial of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Kurds sympathetic to Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers Party, or P-K-K, led protests throughout Europe and guerrillas carried out suicide attacks in Turkey after Turkish commandos captured the rebel leader in February.
And security forces are taking no chances with the trial.
Journalists approved to attend the trial have been fingerprinted.
They've been told to bring nothing to the island - court officials are to give journalists notebooks and pens once they are on the island.
Paramilitary forces armed with submachine guns guard the jetty at Mudanya harbour, from which boats will take reporters and other observers to Imrali.
Ocalan faces charges of treason, after leading a 15-year guerrilla war in the name of Kurdish autonomy.
The charge carries a life sentence, but it is not certain that the leader will be hanged even if found guilty.
The court ruling must first be approved by Turkish parliament and the death sentence has not been carried out since 1984.
None-the-less, bereaved Turkish mothers and fathers gathered on Sunday ahead of the trial, some demanding Ocalan's death.
Signs, some splashed to resemble blood, accused Ocalan of being a baby killer.
SOUNDBITE: (Turkish)
"There's no way the trial should be delayed. It should go ahead and Ocalan should be hanged."
SUPER CAPTION: Vox Pop
Some protesters carried ornately framed photographs of dead soldiers, sons who were among the tens of thousands who died since the separatist rebels began their fight.
SOUNDBITE: (Turkish)
"The reason we want to take part in the trial is to because we want to air our views to the public to Turkey and the whole world. We don't want to see terrorism in any country. We want our loved ones to lie in peace. "
SUPER CAPTION: Salim Yildiz, who lost his son to the PKK
SOUNDBITE: (Turkish)
"It will be the justice who decide Ocalan's punishment not me. I call on justice to try him and sentence him to what he deserves on behalf of us. "
SUPER CAPTION: Fehime Yildiz
Ocalan has been accused of ordering the killings of troops, state-employed teachers and civilians in the P-K-K's campaign for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.
As the world's media gathers for the trial, Ocalan's lawyers say they'll ask for a postponement when he appears in court on Monday.
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