Washington, D.C.--Well-known human rights champion, Mrs. Elena Bonner, the widow of Andrei Sakharov, physicist, human rights activist, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, will visit the Kurdish hunger fasters at the Capitol.  Both Sakharov and Mrs. Bonner have been friends and advocates of the Kurdish people for many years.  She will express her solidarity with a group of Kurds who began a fast on the Capitol grounds Monday, October 20.  Mrs. Bonner will meet with the fasters on Saturday, October 25 at 1:00 PM on the east side of the Capitol in the Senate triangle.

Bonner's visit is highly symbolic to all Kurds.  She will express her solidarity with the Kurds and call for peace in Kurdistan.  Mrs. Bonner will also protest the current Turkish aggression in Iraqi Kurdistan.  She will join the fasters to ask for the freedom of the Leyla Zana, a Kurdish parliamentarian in Turkey, who is serving as 15-year sentence based on statements she made on the plight of the Kurds here in our Nation's Capitol.  Mrs. Zana is the winner of the European Parliament's Sakharov Award.  She is the first Kurdish woman to have been elected to the Turkish Parliament.

Out of frustration with the lack of attention and concern for the largest ethnic group without a State, six  individuals (four Kurds, two Americans), including Kathryn Cameron Porter, President of the Human Rights Alliance and spouse of Congressman John Porter, began an unlimited fast on October 20 on the east front across from the Senate opposite the Supreme Court.  Many Members of Congress, representatives of NGO's, friends and personalities have visited the fasters.  Members of the Kurdish community in the United States and others have visited the fasters to also demonstrate support.  We urge you to visit the fasters and Mrs. Bonner at 1:00 PM tomorrow or next week if at all possible.

Mr. Sakharov was the first international personality to ask, during the 1989 Paris Conference on the Kurds, that the UN organize an international conference to find solutions to the continued Kurdish plight.  Today, the depth of his conviction and commitment is even more needed and relevant.