BEIRUT: Families of inmates in the country’s prisons Tuesday
staged demonstrations nationwide to protest the government’s failure to take
action to reduce prison sentences.
The day-long protest also called for a general amnesty for all
prisoners and detainees in Lebanon’s prisons, which, according to human rights
activists and organizations, are overcrowded and have poor living conditions.
While there had been several reports that protesters might stage
riots in front of Lebanon’s largest prison Roumieh, movements throughout the
day were limited and took place away from Roumieh, which has witnessed in the
past confrontations between protesters and the Internal Security Forces and
Lebanese Army.
Dozens of men and women, however, blocked the country’s major
highways with burning tires Tuesday and chanted slogans condemning the
government’s failure to implement a long-promised policy to reduce one year of
a prison sentence to nine months.
A security source told the Daily Star that, simultaneous with
the protests, inmates were mulling their own demonstration through a
large-scale hunger strike inside Roumieh.
A three-day riot in the Roumieh prison in April left at least
four people dead and almost 10 others injured, after the ISF and the army
carried out a joint-raid to prevent a possible large-scale prison break.
Considered the largest jail in the country, Roumieh prison was
built for around 1,500 prisoners, but presently houses more than 5,000 inmates.
Since April, inmates’ families and civil organizations working
to ensure prisoners’ rights have stepped up their calls on the government to
pass a law that would reduce prison sentences and make way for a general
amnesty. So far, the Parliament has not drafted a law aimed at reducing prison
sentence.
Meanwhile, ISF personnel were heavily deployed in and around the
Roumieh prison from the early hours of Tuesday morning and there was no rioting
in the area.
Families of inmates first blocked the highway leading to
Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport and the Msharrafiyeh road, creating
severe traffic congestion at the southern gate of Beirut.
When the ISF managed to reopen the blocked roads, protesters
relocated the demonstration to other areas in and around Beirut including Mar
Mikhail, Burj al-Barajneh, Tayyouneh and the Sayyad roundabout.
Protests also spread across the Bekaa, where families of inmates
blocked the road leading to the Bekaa towns of Britel and Riyyak. ISF units
quickly reopened the roads.
Other demonstrations took place in Dinniyeh, Qobba and Tripoli
in the north of the country.
“We repeatedly warned the government not to let things get to
this point … we said, ‘Do not force us to go on to the streets and take our
rights, even by force,’” said Khodor Habib, who heads the detainees committees
and was one of the protest’s organizers.
Habib told reporters in Beirut that if MPs and the government
want a new era in the country, they need to listen to protesters’ demands.
“I tell all politicians and the MPs, ‘If you want to open a new
page with your people, you need to start with a general amnesty,’” he added.
Habib also warned that if Parliament fails to take action,
demonstrations would continue.
“Let it be clear, if the Parliament does not adopt a new law for
a general amnesty in its next session, we will continue with our movement until
all our demands are met,” said Habib, who was surrounded by reporters and
burning tires.
“We call on
President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Speaker Nabih Berri and
Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai to heed to our calls, because the protest
movement will continue if our demands are not met,” Habib added.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2011/Nov-02/152852-inmates-families-stage-rallies-nationwide.ashx#axzz1cYU7Z4LC
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