Jailed Kurdish rebel chief makes ceasefire call

ISTANBUL, Sep 28 (Reuters) Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has called for his Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants to implement an unconditional ceasefire with Turkey amid an escalation in violence in Turkey's southeast.

PKK guerrillas have previously declared several unilateral ceasefires in their separatist conflict with the Turkish state in which more than 30,000 people have died since they took up arms in 1984.

There had been speculation about an imminent ceasefire in recent days and Ocalan said in a two-page statement faxed to Reuters today that such a move would be an opportunity to foster a democratic and peaceful solution to the conflict.

''In order to achieve this I am playing my part and call on the PKK for a ceasefire. I hope that PKK will heed my call and that it will yield results,'' he said in a statement dated September 27 from his prison on Imrali island south of Istanbul.

He said that four previous unilateral ceasefires had failed to draw a response from Turkish authorities and he said this could be a ''last chance''. Some of the ceasefires were conditional.

The conflict, focused on the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey, dwindled after Ocalan was captured and convicted in 1999.

But the conflict has flared up again since the PKK called off a unilateral ceasefire in 2004 and the violence has continued despite a temporary ceasefire last year.

REUTERS SP KN1758