One dead, 10 injured in fresh SE Turkey clashes

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Apr 1 (Reuters) Fresh clashes between Kurdish protesters and police in southeast Turkey killed one protester and injured 10 others today, security sources said.

The latest death brought the toll in this week's violence to eight dead. The protester was named as Ahmet Arac and it was not immediately clear how he died or how old he was.

The clashes erupted near the Syrian border in the town of Kiziltepe, south of the mainly Kurdish region's largest city Diyarbakir, where most of this week's violence has been focused.

Demonstrators set fire to a branch of a major bank and a building used by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The riots erupted on Tuesday after funeral ceremonies for 14 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) killed last weekend by security forces.

Ankara regards the PKK as a terrorist group responsible for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since it launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. But many Kurds view the PKK sympathetically.

Police and protesters also clashed in the town of Silopi, near the Iraqi border today. Demonstrators threw stones and sticks at the police who responded by firing tear gas.

A three-year-old boy died of gunshot wounds yesterday in Diyarbakir and local media said he was killed after police fired shots over the heads of protesters.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said children were being used as ''pawns of terrorism'' in unrest gripping the region and warned that security forces could not guarantee their safety.

Diyarbakir, a city of around one million people, was calm today and shopkeepers opened their stores after keeping them shut at the height of the trouble.

The European Union, which Turkey aims to join, has expressed concern about the violence and urged Ankara to do more to combat poverty in the southeast and to boost Kurds' cultural rights.

REUTERS DKS HS1715