KYRGYZSTAN: More then a thousand prisoners who had stitched their mouths shut to protest Kyrgyz prison conditions, have ended their strike, ombudsman says

Record ID: 340711

  • Title: KYRGYZSTAN: More then a thousand prisoners who had stitched their mouths shut to protest Kyrgyz prison conditions, have ended their strike, ombudsman says
  • Date: 29th January 2012
  • Summary: BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN (JANUARY 28, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS ENTRANCE TO BISHKEK DETENTION CENTRE VARIOUS OF PRISON EMPLOYEE CHECKING FOOD BROUGHT BY PRISONERS' RELATIVES WOMAN SEEN THROUGH PRISON EMPLOYEES WINDOW SAYING 'THANK YOU VERY MUCH' VARIOUS FOOD BROUGHT BY RELATIVES TO PRISONERS ON SHELVES (SOUNDBITE) (Kyrgyz) BISHKEK DETENTION CENTRE #1 INMATE, ADILET, (WITH B
  • Embargoed: 13th February 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyzstan
  • Country: Kyrgyzstan
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVAJ3DB84I9SRVSI0JSDNJQCKL7
  • Story Text: More than a thousand convicts in Kyrgyzstan have ended their hunger strike, during which they stitched their mouths closed in protest at living conditions in the Central Asian republic's prisons, a local ombudsman and one of the prisoners said on Saturday (January 28).
    "We were on hunger strike since January 16, we have ended it today. Now everything is allright. Our demands were to improve living conditions, to give us mattresses and better food and to end up the lawlessness," one of the inmates of Bishkek prison #1, Adilet, told Reuters from his cell.
    The protest was an escalation of a two-week-old hunger strike involving most of the country's 7,500 inmates, triggered by a special forces raid on a jail in the capital, Bishkek.
    A Reuters cameraman who visited the prison on Friday (January 27) saw 10 inmates with their mouths stitched shut - most had used metal wire. The prisoners, some with heaters and televisions in their cells, appeared calm.
    Kyrgyz ombudsman Tursunbai Akun, who visited Bishkek prison #1 on Friday, confirmed that the inmates have ended their protest.
    "Yesterday the prison leaders ordered an end to the strike, so the prison colonies which obey their leaders have ended the strike," Akun told Reuters on Saturday.
    The ombudsman said the inmates had the right to protest against harsh conditions, as the prisons in Kyrgyzstan receive only 30 percent of the necessary funding.
    "They (the prison authorities) can not provide normal food and conditions for prisoners, so they (the prisoners) demand to improve the conditions. The medical services are in a very bad state, other services, the staff ... of course there is harsh treatment (of prisoners) from the side of the prison staff. There are a lot of problems here and there have to be monitoring and explanatory work, so we agreed (with the prison authorities) to work together with our institution," Akun said.
    Prison service officials said special forces had been sent into Detention Centre No. 1 earlier in January to quell a riot by prisoners who vandalised their cells and cut their hands and stomachs during a search by guards.
    They said guards had been conducting the search as part of a crackdown on smuggling and illegal dealing in prison. Inmates organised a nationwide hunger strike - assisted by mobile telephones smuggled into their cells.
    On Friday, convicts were searched again in Bishkek Detention Centre #1. Guards emptied boxes during a search of the cells and confiscated syringes and other banned items.
    One of the convicts protested against the search.
    "I can't take it anymore. We haven't eaten for 11 days, we're not strong enough to clean up. Look, my hands are shaking, everything hurts inside, how am I going to clean up there? Last time it was the same: you have torn everything upside down and went away," one of the inmates said addressing the guards.
    "Give me what I have the right for. Not only food, but all the rest too. But they don't give it to me. I have been asking to put me to hospital for three days already, and they still haven't sent me there," the inmate told the guards in prison corridor as they searched his cell.
    Prison authorities said 209 inmates in the Bishkek jail had stitched in their mouths, but all of them had now removed the stitches.
    Around 6,400 prisoners were on hunger strike nationwide and 1,175 had sewn their mouths closed, although more than 200 later appealed for medical help to remove the stitches, prison service spokeswoman said.
    Prison riots occur periodically in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. Police in neighbouring Kazakhstan foiled an attempted jailbreak last July. As special forces stormed a penal colony to quell the unrest, an explosion occurred killing six people.
    Several inmates were killed during prison riots in Kyrgyzstan in 2005.
    An impoverished country of 5.5 million people that hosts both U.S. and Russian military air bases, Kyrgyzstan overthrew its president in April 2010 and was the scene of bloody clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks two months later.
    Nearly 7,600 inmates are incarcerated in Kyrgyz prisons, while a further 7,000 convicted of minor offences are confined to their home region and required to check in daily with police.
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