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Turkish prosecutor seeks life terms for two soldiers

ANKARA, March 3, 2006 (AFP) - A prosecutor has asked a Turkish court to hand down life sentences without parole to two soldiers and an auxiliary accused of causing an explosion in the Kurdish area of the country, the Anatolia news agency reported Friday.

The two soldiers, non-commissioned officers, and a former rebel with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) face trial in the eastern city of Van on charges of "taking part in actions designed to break the unity of the country", murder and attempted murder, the agency said.

The charges relate to an explosion on November 9 last year at a bookshop in Semdinli in the southeast, mainly Kurdish area of Turkey, which killed one and injured six.

The blast was followed by a wave of violence as Kurds reacted to what they saw an act of provocation by rogue military elements.

The government, which is seeking European Union membership, was embarrassed by the incident and promised a full inquiry.

In January a police officer who killed a demonstrator in the aftermath of the explosion and wounded five others was provisionally freed by a court. Tension in the southeast has escalated since June 2004, when the PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara, the European Union and the United States, called off a unilateral ceasefire.

The Kurdish conflict has claimed some 37,000 lives since 1984 when the PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the region.