Indonesia returns foreigners to riot-hit jail

DENPASAR, Indonesia — Foreign inmates evacuated from a jail on Indonesia’s Bali island where rioting prisoners took control this week have been returned to the facility at their request, authorities said Friday.

Fourteen foreigners, among Kerobokan’s 60 overseas prisoners, were evacuated for their safety late Thursday but were returned after telling prison officials they did not want to serve their sentences in different jails.

A dozen convicted Australian drug smugglers and 48 other overseas prisoners have been housed together with about 1,000 other inmates at the notorious and overcrowded Kerobokan where violence broke out Tuesday between warring gangs.

Indonesian forces stormed Kerobokan on Wednesday to regain control after a night of arson and stone-throwing, but were later forced back, with prison staff saying they were afraid to return for fear of sparking more violence.

Nine women and four men — from Britain, Denmark, France, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines and Iran — were bussed out and later returned, an intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Scott Rush, a member of the so-called Bali Nine gang of drug smugglers and the only Australian evacuee, was also among those back at Kerobokan, where the 1,105 inmate population is more than three times the intended capacity.

Myuran Sukumaran, another of the Bali Nine who is on death row, briefly spoke to reporters from a guard watch tower, saying he did not want to move from Kerobokan.

“I’m just fine here. I don’t want to move somewhere else, I want to remain here,” he said, wearing an orange T-shirt and smiling as he spoke in Indonesian and waved to reporters.

Eleven Kerobokan inmates are children, officials said without providing their ages, all of them Indonesian.

Authorities appeared to be trying to negotiate with inmates at the jail, a few kilometres (miles) from the tourist beaches of Kuta.

Security officials said the situation inside had improved but it was unclear whether guards had regained control.

By early evening authorities had reopened the street outside the prison, where only a few dozen police guards were stationed.