"The Commissioner remains deeply concerned by the continuing practice of arresting, detaining and prosecuting children who participate in Kurdish demonstrations in southeast Turkey," European human rights envoy Thomas Hammarberg said in a statement released at the end of his two-day visit to Turkey, a candidate to join the European Union.

Words which leave no doubt to the clear distress the European envoy suffered. Because, as Hammarberg said, clearly the jailing of Kurdish children on charges of supporting terrorism in anti-government protests

is in violation of UN human rights principles.

Hammarberg, the envoy of the 47-member Council of Europe, said he had met with 18 minors aged 15-18, including two girls, who were being held in detention in a prison in the city of Diyarbakir for six-to-nine months.

Hundreds of children have been jailed by Turkish security forces fighting Kurdish separatist rebels for taking part in anti-government demonstrations, human rights groups say.

"The imprisonment of children is an exceptional measure which should be avoided in principle," the statement said.

"Systematically resorting to the detention and imprisonment of children, occasionally with very heavy sentences of more than 10 years, runs counter to the fundamental principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the guidelines."

According to human rights organizations there are hundreds of children in Turkish prisons at the moment charged under the anti-terror laws. And so far the AKP government has done nothing to change the status quo.