UN criticises Latin American jails

GENEVA: The UN has called for an independent investigation into a prison fire that killed hundreds in Honduras, and denounced what it said was a wave of prison violence in Latin America fuelled by poor conditions and overcrowding.

Survivors of the fire that killed more than 350 inmates in Comayagua prison on Tuesday night accused guards of leaving prisoners to die inside their cells and shooting at others who tried to escape the flames.

The UN human rights office “fully supports the establishment of a thorough independent investigation into the causes of the fire and into whether the conditions at the prison contributed to the enormous loss of life”, Rupert Colville, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesman, Navi Pillay, told a briefing.

Colville noted that the prison was designed to house 250 detainees but was holding more than 800 at the time of the blaze.

It was the third prison fire in Honduras causing a high number of fatalities in the past decade, including 107 detainees who died in 2004, he said.

But problems are widespread in the region, where prisons often hold from 30 percent to 100 percent more prisoners than they were built for, he said. UN human rights bodies and investigators have repeatedly criticised conditions there.

Colville said a “wave of violence” in Latin American prisons had caused deaths in recent weeks in Uruguay, Argentina, Venezuela and Chile.

“These events reflect an alarming pattern of prison violence in the region, which is a direct consequence of, or aggravated by, a range of endemic problems including chronic overcrowding, the lack of access to basic services such as adequate floor space, potable water, food, healthcare and lack of basic sanitary and hygienic standards,” he said. – Reuters