Dutch reporter detained by Turkish forces

Frederike Geerdink, a Diyarbakir-based author and journalist, said via Twitter she was detained Sunday while accompanying a group protesting Turkey's crackdown on Kurdish militants.

Geerdink told Dutch broadcaster NOS that she was reporting on a group of 32 activists forming human shields in one of the areas where the security forces were carrying out operations against the Kurdish militants.

"I expected to spend two hours with them (the activists), but when we got there, the road was blocked by the army and I ended up spending two days there," Geerdink said, the AFP news agency reported.

She said that the members of the group, who were "not my friends, but my sources," were all arrested on their way home.

Dutch foreign ministry involved

Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders has asked The Netherlands' embassy in Ankara to contact both Geerdink and Turkish authorities about the case, his office said Sunday.

"The Netherlands has been concerned about freedom of the press and freedom of speech in Turkey for some time," spokesman Roel van der Meij said. "This remains an important point in our relations with Turkey."

A senior Turkish official told the Reuters news agency that Geerdink had been detained for her own safety.

"Frederike has not been arrested for journalism," the official said. "She was in a security zone where there was fighting, because of that we could not guarantee her safety, so she has been detained and investigations are continuing."

Thomas Bruning, secretary general of the Dutch Association of Journalists, criticized Turkey for trying to muzzle the press by intimidating correspondents.

"The importance of the freedom of the press does not seem to interest this country anymore," Bruning told AFP. "The situation of Turkish media is worrying but now foreign journalists can also not do their work."

It's not the first time Geerdink has run afoul of the authorities for her reporting. She was arrested in January and accused of posting messages on social media in favor of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

She was acquitted of all charges in April, but her arrest caused an uproar from rights groups and raised concerns about Ankara's attitude to press freedoms.

Geerdink, who has lived in Turkey since 2006, has authored a book in Dutch on Turkey's Kurds and publishes an English language blog called Kurdish Matters.

Fighting continues

Clashes between the outlawed PKK and Turkish security forces have been occurring almost daily since July, when a two-year ceasefire between the PKK and the government collapsed, with both sides blaming each other.

Earlier in the day two Turkish policeman were killed and three others injured in predominantly Kurdish eastern Turkey's largest city, Diyarbakir, when Kurdish militants clashed with security forces, government sources said.

Gunfire and explosions echoed across the center of Diyarbakir on Sunday morning after fighters from the outlawed PKK fired a rocket-propelled grenade at police trying to fill in ditches dug by groups tied to the PKK.

Security forces responded with an air-supported operation against the militants and the governor's office imposed a curfew in the area, ordering all residents to remain indoors.

jar/bk (AP, Reuters, AFP)