Mardi 29 novembre 2005 à 11h51
ANKARA, Nov 29 (AFP) — Turkish authorities have arrested two soldiers in a high-profile probe into a bomb attack widely blamed on members of the security forces in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast, Anatolia news agency reported Tuesday.
The arrest of Ali Kaya and Ozcan Ildeniz brings to four the number of suspects in custody after the November 9 bombing of a bookstore owned by a former Kurdish guerrilla in the town of Semdinli, Hakkari province.
Both are gendarmes, members of military units that police rural areas.
An angry crowd almost lynched Kaya, Ildeniz and a third person after the attack on the bookstore, which killed one person.
The third man, who reportedly threw the bomb, was identified as a former Kurdish guerrilla turned informer and was arrested immediately after the incident.
Weapons, hand grenades, a sketch of the shop and a list of people, including its owner, were found in a car in which the three tried to escape after the blast.
A third gendarme officer was arrested for shooting at the crowd and killing another person in the unrest.
The incident triggered deadly riots across Hakkari and proved a serious political embarrassment for the government at a time when it is under pressure to demonstrate its commitment to democracy and the rule of law in its bid to join the European Union.
The authorities had drawn criticism particularly for failing to arrest Kaya and Ildeniz immediately after the blast.
The bombing raised questions over whether Turkey has suceeded in purging rogue elements from the security forces accused of summary executions, extortion, kidnappings and drug-smuggling in the southeast during the early 1990s, the peak years of a separatist Kurdish rebellion.
The conflict has claimed some 37,000 lives since the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an armed group considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and the United States, took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the region in
Les informations ci-dessus de l'AFP n'engagent pas la responsabilité de l'Institut kurde de Paris.