400 Kyrgyz inmates sew their lips in protest: official

24 January 2012 - 12:08 By Sapa-AFP
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Stitched suede. File.
Stitched suede. File.
Image: Gallo Images/Thinkstock

More than 400 prison inmates in Kyrgyzstan have sewn their lips shut in protest over prison conditions, a security service official in the Central Asian republic said on Tuesday.

The action was joined by inmates in two jails, who were drawing attention to a hunger strike they began on January 17, State Corrections Service chief Sheishenbek Baizakov told reporters.

"Today, 260 people are eating in pre-trial detention centre No. 1. But 385 people have sewn their lips. They were joined by 61 inhabitants of facility No. 8," Baizakov said.

He said the inmates were demanding broader freedom of movement inside the jails, and that their demands would never be met.

"This will never happen," Baizakov said. "Let them all sew their mouths shut."

The ex-Soviet nation of 5.3 million people has been wracked by ethnic conflict in recent years that resulted in the death of hundreds in June 2010 violence between the Kyrgyz and the Uzbek minority.

The authorities have since stepped up security across the mountainous nation, leading to periodic criticism of its rights record and a series of hunger strikes in its jails.

Hundreds of inmates in three jails ended a week-long hunger strike in March after officials promised to provide better medicine and food.

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