ANKARA - Leading Kurdish activist Leyla Zana urged the Turkish government Wednesday to grant general amnesty to thousands of armed Kurdish rebels as a key step towards ending the Kurdish conflict in the country.
"Disarming the youths in the mountains and ridding them of violence will create great synergy on the way to democracy," Zana said in a statement.
"What should be done is to embrace our people and integrate them into social and political life through democratic legislation," she said. "Such a practical step will eradicate the ground for violence and bring relief to our country."
Militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) waged a bloody campaign for self-rule in Turkey's southeast between 1984 and 1999 in a conflict that claimed some 36,500 lives.
The PKK ended a five-year unilateral truce with Ankara in June, raising tensions in the region.
Zana, a former parliamentarian and a winner of the European Parliament's human rights award, was last June released from a decade in jail for allegedly collaborating with the Kurdish rebellion.
She and three other Kurdish activists are now being retried.
Ankara has in the past amnestied rebels, but the measures produced disappointing results, mainly because they contained conditions demanding the militants to repent and provide information about underground PKK activities.
Only about 250 rebels turned themselves in under the latest amnesty in 2003.
The PKK is believed to have about 5,000 militants in Turkey and in the mountains of neighboring northern Iraq.
04/06/2005 13:46 GMT