Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 5/17/2006

May 17, 2006

U N I T E D N A T I O N S

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) - 1995-2005 ten years serving the

humanitarian community

[These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENT:

1 - CONGO: Decay, disease, violence stalk convicts

BRAZZAVILLE, 17 May (PLUSNEWS) - Inside the crumbling, mildewed walls of

Brazzaville's prison in the capital of the Republic of Congo (ROC), up to 12 men

share cells designed to hold four inmates. The cells have neither running water,

nor toilets, and the few belongings convicts have are hung on nails or strewn

across the filthy floor.

" There are serious problems with this facility, " Clive Obambi, a repeat offender

who is serving time for theft, said. " The daily food ration is meagre, and we

live in conditions that are hard to bear. "

In addition, because of the slowness in processing case files, a prisoner can

spend up to eight months in custody before arraignment.

The situation is much the same in the six other prisons and numerous police

jails throughout the country. According to government authorities, the country's

prison population, although variable, is around 900, with nearly 400 confined in

Brazzaville.

Ngambouma, 36, recounted his four-day incarceration in 2005 at the Talangai

Police Station in the north of Brazzaville, for having swindled a neighbour.

" You have to sleep on the floor in the dark. You have to relieve yourself on the

spot, " he said, adding that for anything else you have to use a plastic

container.

" Apart from the horrible smells, you have to fight off insects, " he said.

The state prosecutor at the Brazzaville County Court, Alphonse Dinard Moubangat,

concurs with Ngambouma.

" Prisons in Congo are obsolete and do not meet international standards, "

Moubangat said.

When the Brazzaville Central Prison was built in the 1960s it was designed to

hold a maximum of 100 inmates; it often holds four times that number.

Violence and disease

Overcrowding and poor hygiene conspire to create prime conditions for violence

and disease. Although no hard data is available, the prevalence rates for rape

and sexually transmitted diseases in correctional facilities in ROC are high.

Prison officials have little or no means to prevent incidents of violence or

treat inmates who are injured or ill.

" Although homosexuality is illegal and frowned upon in Congolese society, the

practice is a reality in prisons, " said Inana, the HIV/AIDS programme

administrator at the Brazzaville office of the United Nations Children's Fund.

" Adolescents are prey; sodomy and rape are frequent, " he said.

Sexual violence is commonplace in police jails as well. One inmate, who declined

to be identified, said three fellow prisoners had sodomised him for hours when

he was being held at Brazzaville Central Police Station.

Such appalling conditions can be even worse for women inmates. Loamba Moke,

president of Univers Carceral (or ADHUC), a human rights group that advocates on

behalf of inmates, cited the case of a woman awaiting trial for murder at a

prison in Djambala, the main town in Plateaux Department, in the north of the

country. The authorities put her in a men's prison for three days because of

lack of space elsewhere. The result? She was gang raped.

Most prisoners' complaints are not investigated, so it is difficult to quantify

the extent and scope of sexual abuse. Testimonies from many former prisoners,

however, indicate that sexual violence is common and increasing.

" Indisputably, the situation is getting worse, " Moke said.

The hazardous prison environment leads to inmates contracting HIV or suffering

from AIDS-related illnesses like tuberculosis, the leading HIV-opportunistic

disease.

" The small cells these prisoners share are not ventilated and do not have

windows, " said a former prisoner called Giap. " The fact that some people cough

nonstop or have fevers does not worry anyone. "

Malnutrition, which would compromise anyone's health, is even more dangerous for

prisoners living with HIV/AIDS. A balanced, nutritious diet is essential to

fighting the virus. Twice a day, prisoners eat meals based on rice, tined foods

or salt fish. They seldom eat meals of fresh fish or meat.

Some prisons allow inmates to leave facilities during the day for medical

treatment, which is paid for by relatives. However, associations committed to

helping inmates with HIV/AIDS said prison officials only took people to hospital

when their health situation was desperate and, often, it was too late.

Authorities do not release figures for those who die in prison, but anecdotal

reports suggest the number is high.

As part of its efforts to stem the AIDS pandemic - the prevalence rate in ROC is

4.2 percent - the government has launched an HIV-prevention programme in the

Brazzaville prison, said Cyrille Louya, head of the HIV/AIDS Unit in the

Ministry of Justice and Human Rights. The first step is an awareness campaign

for inmates and prison staff on the modes of HIV and tuberculosis transmission.

It is in this regard that the National Aids Council has set up Louya's unit in

the ministry.

The next step is to identify, progressively, all the HIV-positive prisoners and

give them access to antiretroviral treatments (ARVs).

Prisoner reaction

In April, squalid conditions at the Brazzaville prison led inmates to take the

prison director hostage for several hours to call attention to their plight. The

minister of justice and human rights, Entsa-Ebia, was able to secure the

director's release by providing food to the inmates. It was only a stopgap

measure, however, as the rations lasted only a few days.

The country is saddled with massive financial problems in virtually every

sector, and the monthly budget for prisoners' food nationwide is only 12 million

francs CFA (US $23,000). This amount falls far short of that required to feed

approximately 900 people, according to Ibela Ibel, the director-general of

penal administration.

" We sometimes wait three months before getting a single franc and must,

therefore, seek a loan, " he said. " When we finally get the money, it is often

only half of the budget or even less. "

That is why Ibela Ibel asked civil society bodies to speak out about the prisons

conditions, since the state had proven its incapacity to improve the situation.

However, the government says it will try to solve the problem of overcrowding.

It has announced its intension to begin building new prisons by the end of the

year in the administrative divisions of Lekoumou Department in the country's

southwest, as well as Cuvette and in Cuvette-Ouest departments, in central

Congo.

For those who are currently incarcerated, such proposals offer little

consolation within the context of their daily lives.

" What I would like to say for once is that the authorities have an obligation to

treat prisoners with dignity and respect their human rights, " Obambi said.

[ENDS]

This is non-reply e-mail. Please do not hesitate to contact us at

Mail@....

Principal donors: IRIN is generously supported by Australia, Canada, Denmark,

ECHO, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and

the United States of America. For more information, go to:

http://www.IRINnews.org/donors

[This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information

service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its

agencies. All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer

to the copyright page (Http://www.irinnews.org/copyright ) for conditions of

use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian

Affairs.]

PLUSNEWS

Tel: +27 11 895-1900

Fax: +27 11 784-6759

Email: Mail@...

To make changes to or cancel your subscription visit:

http://www.irinnews.org/subscriptions

Subscriber: AIDS treatments

May 17, 2006