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Rioting Inmates Seize Afghan Prison

Posted on: Monday, 27 February 2006, 06:00 CST

By AMIR SHAH

KABUL, Afghanistan - A top Afghan official on Monday warned the government could use force to end a standoff with prisoners who have taken Kabul's main prison, as authorities continued to try to negotiate with the rioters.

Security forces with tanks and heavy guns surrounded Policharki jail on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, two days after prisoners took over most of the facility during an uprising that officials blamed on al-Qaida and Taliban militants.

"We can take all these prisoners in one hour," Mohammed Qasim Hashimzai, the deputy justice minister, told The Associated Press as he traveled to the prison Monday. "But to prevent bloodshed we are trying to negotiate."

Prison authorities cut off water, electricity and food to the rioters, said Abdul Salaam Bakshi, chief of prisons in Afghanistan.

Gunfire continued to ring out Monday morning from the jail, while inmates could be heard inside shouting, "God is Great!"

A prison medic who identified himself only as Hamidullah said inmates had written in notes thrown to him from cell windows that said five inmates had been killed and 30 wounded in firing by guards.

Hashimzai said prisoners had told negotiators on Sunday that more than 20 inmates had been injured, but did not report any deaths. He said he could confirm only four injured. It wasn't immediately possible to reconcile the different accounts.

The riot broke out late Saturday in Block Two of the prison, which houses about 1,300 of the 2,000 inmates, including 350 al-Qaida and Taliban loyalists. Officials said the violence began when inmates refused to put on new uniforms, which were ordered after seven Taliban prisoners escaped last month by disguising themselves as visitors.

Hashimzai confirmed that rioting had also spread on Sunday to Block One, which houses hundreds more inmates. He said no prisoners had escaped.

Security forces had yet to gain access to parts of the jail under prisoners' control, including a wing of the prison housing its 70 women inmates and about 70 children who live with them.

A senior government official, who refused to be quoted because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the prisoners had dug a tunnel to that wing to reach it. Soldiers at the prison, however, reported the prisoners had made a hole in a wall.

Hashimzai said attempts to negotiate the release of the women from the rioters' control floundered Sunday because of disunity among the inmates and confusion over their demands.

Mir Hayatullah Hashimi, another deputy minister of justice, said prisoners had demanded negotiations with top government officials, including the chief of Afghanistan's reconciliation commission, a vice president and the chief of the Supreme Court.

Policharki was built in the 1970s and has earned notoriety for its harsh and crowded conditions, but is under renovation ahead of the expected arrival of some 110 Afghan terror suspects later this year from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Afghan officials say.

Riots and breakouts have cast doubts over its readiness.

In December 2004, four inmates and four guards died during a 10-hour standoff that started when some al-Qaida militants used razors to wrest guns from guards and then tried to break out. Afghan troops stormed the prison and fired guns and rocket-propelled grenades to retake control.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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