Ex-inmates testify to appalling jail conditions

JAKARTA (JP): Several youths and women just released from detention testified yesterday to the appalling conditions in the Pondok Bambu detention center, where a 13-year old boy, who died on Monday, was serving time.

A teenager said he tried to alert the guards to Lambertus Lele Koban's deteriorating health on Saturday night but was ignored.

Lambertus, who was serving a 10-year jail term for murder, died in hospital on Monday. An autopsy showed he died of a respiratory illness. His relatives believe the detention center's poor conditions caused the illness and plan to sue the authorities.

The teenagers and women who were convicted in court yesterday for their role in the July 27 riot spoke of Pondok Bambu's poor conditions. They were detained for four months awaiting trial and sentenced to four months prison yesterday, so were released.

Ali Husein, 17, said that on Saturday night he and his cell mates urged the guards to check Lambertus's condition. Lambertus was in the next cell. Ali said they were ignored.

The Pondok Bambu center houses youth and women convicted or being detained.

Ali said the center did not provide beds so inmates had to sleep on mats.

"Our parents provided us with a carpet, but Lambertus slept on a thin, rough woven mat," Ali said. The floor was damp and there was not enough ventilation, he said.

There are 10 boys to a cell.

Ali said the water smelt. "We couldn't drink it. We drank from bottled water provided by friends."

A water-pump engine in his cell block was out of order and guards would only bring in water for money, he said

Elsye, 34, and Marta Hutagalung, 32, two women tried and convicted with Ali yesterday, also spoke of the poor water in Pondok Bambu.

Many detainees got skin rashes because of the water, they said.

"We only took baths when the water looked clean. This meant we had to let the dirt settle for sometime," Marta said.

Lambertus' family's lawyers said they were not satisfied with the official explanation of Lambertus' death.

Mulyadi of the OC Kaligis and Associate law office said he saw Lambertus 10 days ago and he was in good health.

Lawyers are worried about the condition of Lambertus's two cousins -- Clemens, 14, and Albertus, 13 -- who are also in Pondok Bambu for their role in the same murder. "Clemence's health is feeble," Mulyadi said.

In a related development a National Development Planning Board official promised yesterday to try to raise state funding for the Cipinang penitentiary to improve the conditions there, Antara reported.

Sutadi Djajakusuma, an aide to the board chairman, made an unannounced visit to Cipinang.

Cipinang Chief Warden Subari said the penitentiary was built in 1918 and had never been renovated.

"The penitentiary does not have a dining room for inmates. They have to eat in the alleyways or in their cells," he said.

Subari said the correctional facility only had a general physician, a dentist and three paramedics for 1,700 inmates. (07/05)

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