MAZAR-E SHARIF, 1 May 2006 (IRIN) - Lailoma, 10, has been
living in squalid conditions with her imprisoned mother in a provincial jail in
Mazar-e Sharif, capital of the northern Afghan province of Balkh, for years. “I
cannot live without my mother, brothers and sister who have been here with me
for a long time,” grinned Lailoma.
Nisar Ahmad, 8, Lailoma’s brother, has
no idea about life outside the prison as he has been living in a poorly
ventilated, dark room with a tiny window and small yard most of his life. “How
can I go outside when the door is always locked and my mother is here?” he
asked.
Although Lailoma and Nisar Ahmad have not been charged with any
crime, they have become prisoners along with their mother, 35-year-old Tordai,
charged with the killing of her husband. With nowhere to go, they stay with
their convicted mother - the only parent - in the dilapidated facility.
“My four children have been living with me here in jail for nearly five
years. This has become another headache for my miserable life with daily
quarrelling and arguing,” said the emaciated mother, sitting on a small plastic
sheet in her prison cell.
“They [the children] have the same conditions
as we do here in the jail,” Tordai complained. “They have become illiterate …
with no means of learning and studying here.”
Shafiqa, 20, another female
inmate, charged with adultery, complained about poor conditions in the detention
facility. “There are no doctors, no medicine and not enough food to eat for us
here,” she said. The young women escaped from home two years ago after she was
married to a man against her will.
Tordai and Shafiqa - along with other
12 female inmates and their 15 children - share the facility with 236 male
prisoners in a mud-built compound, which was originally the city’s traffic
police department. The building has only two small yards and just nine cells for
both male and female convicts.
The lack of space means those awaiting
trial languish with the convicted in the same cells, Col Abdulrub, in charge of
the prison, said.
“In addition to a lack of proper medicine and health
care here, the issue of very old and overcrowded rooms is another trouble for
prisoners living in this compound,” Abdulrub explained, adding that up to 30
prisoners were living in a room originally built for 10 inmates.
Prison
authorities in Mazar also complained about a lack of foodstuffs, proper medicine
and education facilities for children living alongside their mothers in the
prison.
“The government is only providing less then US $1 for each inmate
per day, which cannot even buy their dry bread,” the prison official
said.
Rights bodies have expressed concern over poor prison conditions in
the destitute central Asian state.
There are 34 prisons across the
country and many lack separate buildings for female prisoners, many of whom are
kept in cells in prisons originally built for male inmates.
“Some 90
children are living with their mothers, who have been charged with different
crimes, without any kindergartens and other facilities for their development in
all the prisons of the country,” Azizi claimed.
“Prison conditions in
Afghanistan remain extremely poor and prisoners generally have to rely on
relatives for their food and other expenditures,” the Afghan Independent Human
Rights Commission (AIHRC) said in its annual report for 2005.
“Prisons
and their staff are severely under-resourced and no training is provided to them
about caring for prisoners or their duties with regards to the human rights of
prisoners,” the report read.
According to the report, the rights body had
helped secure the release of 1,386 illegally detained persons and removed 27
children from adult prison cells in 2005.
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