March 23, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 14, 1429

DIYARBAKIR (Turkey), March 22: More than 100 Kurdish demonstrators and 10 policemen were injured and more than 160 Kurds detained across southeastern Turkey on Saturday when police broke up spring festival celebrations, security sources said.

Turkish police firing water cannons, teargas and wielding batons clashed with demonstrators in the streets in the southeastern cities of Van and Siirt.

More than 60 Kurdish demonstrators and two policemen were injured in fighting in Van after security forces tried to disperse a crowd of nearly 10,000 Kurds celebrating Newroz and shouting slogans supporting the banned separatist Kurdistan Workers Party.

Tensions are high in Turkey’s mostly-Kurdish southeast as military operations against the PKK have continued after the military launched an eight-day operation into northern Iraq to wipe out PKK camps there. The clashes on Saturday began when police tried to break up Newroz celebrations they said were unauthorised.

In Siirt 32 demonstrators and eight police were injured in more violence after police tried to disperse a group of 3,000 people.

—Reuters