Situation in prisons improves - officials

Rioting which had swept through Kyrgyzstan's penal system over the past month has subsided and the situation is currently under control, prison officials said Thursday. "All prison administration staff have gone back to work and continue their duty as usual," Sergey Sidorov, a spokesman for the Kyrgyz prisons administration, said in the capital, Bishkek. "Hunger strikes in prisons that were started after the criminal leader, Aziz Batukaev, was moved to the National Security Service [NSS] special detention centre, have stopped," Sidorov added. In the wake of the most recent disturbances, on 1 November security forces acted to remove Batukaev from the Moldovanovka prison near the capital, in connection with an investigation into the murder of a legislator visiting the prison in October. At least four inmates were killed and several others injured. Discontent over poor living conditions, malnutrition and a lack of medical treatment in prisons was brought to public attention dramatically when Tynychbek Akmatbaev, the head of the parliament's committee on defence and law enforcement, was killed on 20 October while visiting the Moldovanovka prison. Four people in the delegation led by the slain lawmaker were also killed in the prison, while the head of Kyrgyzstan's prisons administration, Ikmatulla Polotov, escorting the group, was seriously injured and later died. The group had gone to the prison to inspect living conditions and listen to the demands of protesting convicts. Following the operation in Moldovanovka, prison officials ordered convicts in other rioting prisons to surrender all banned objects, warning that failure to do so would result in similar security operations there as well. The correction officials maintain that prisoners were now voluntarily surrendering banned items, including knives, handmade swords and cell phones. While officials welcomed the restoration of order in penal institutions, some highlighted the need to address the underlying causes of the riots. "Living conditions of inmates need to be addressed and many things depend on such factors as financing from the state budget, which hadn't been providing enough money for the penal system," Sadyk Sherniyaz, Kyrgyzstan's deputy ombudsman, said. The country's burgeoning penal system has been suffering from an acute lack of financing since Kyrgyzstan became independent following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Before the riots started a month ago, inmates were receiving only a third of the food and medicines they are officially entitled to. The government has been allocating no more than US $0.45 to feed one prisoner per day, while according to national standards it should be at least $1.40. Meanwhile, there are some moves by the government to tackle the problem. "The tragedy in Moldovanovka [prison] made the authorities turn to the problems of the penal system. Now we have received some $250,000 that will be used for improving nutrition and living conditions of inmates," Sidorov said.