Indonesia regains control after jail break

MEDAN, Indonesia: Indonesian police yesterday hunted for around 100 inmates who escaped from an overcrowded jail after setting it ablaze in riots that left five dead, as security personnel regained control of the prison.
Inmates began rampaging through the jail in Medan city on Sumatra island on Thursday afternoon, setting alight fires and hurling bottles at guards in anger over power cuts and water shortages at the facility.
The Tanjung Gusta jail was engulfed in towering flames and scores of firefighters battled through the night to douse them.
Some 150 prisoners, including militants, escaped and police and soldiers were yesterday still desperately hunting for around 100 convicts after recapturing several dozen overnight.
“We have gradually regained control of the prison and soldiers have entered the prison without resistance,” said Akbar Hadi Prabowo, the spokesman for Indonesia’s directorate general of penitentiary told AFP.
The Justice and Human Rights minister Amir Syamsuddin has held talks with representatives of the prisoners, Akbar said, without giving further details, adding that the minister will hold a press conference later today.
Prisoners are often held in grim, overcrowded jails in Indonesia, and Tanjung Gusta is no exception as it currently holds well over double its official capacity of 1,054.
The prisoners were seen casually chatting outside their cells early Friday while heavily armed security forces formed a cordon round the building, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
They allowed in about two dozen soldiers but did not let police enter, the reporter said.
“We don’t like police, they are inhumane, they frequently beat us,” one of the prisoners shouted, as another waved a charred gun and handcuffs at officers.
Five people — three prisoners and two prison staff — had died in the riots, the Deputy Minister of Justice and Human Rights Denny Indrayana said. The two prison staff had become trapped in their burning office, he added.
About 1,000 police and soldiers were deployed to guard the facility and undertake a massive search around the area ysterFriday to try to find prisoners still on the loose.
They included six people convicted of terrorist offences, said North Sumatra province police spokesman Heru Prakoso. The prison housed 11 extremists, he added.
Some were jailed for their involvement at a camp in Aceh province where, police say, militants were planning Mumbai-style gun attacks on high-profile Indonesians.
The others were connected with a bank robbery to fund terror activities and the killings of police officers, police said.
Prakoso added that 55 escapees had so far been detained, including three convicted of terrorist offences.
Ten civilian guards were briefly held hostage during the riots on Thursday but were released late in the evening, Prakoso said.
The prison had been guarded by civilians and not police, he added.
A spokesman for the justice and human rights ministry, Goncang Raharjo, told AFP that Tanjung Gusta was overcrowded.
“The prison capacity is only 1,054 but it now holds about 2,600 convicts and suspects on trials,” he said. “Most prisons across the country have this problem.”
The coordinating minister for politics, legal and security Djoko Suyanto said the riots were a call to action on the nationwide problem of overcrowded prisons.
“We will (first) distribute prisoners at Tanjung Gusta to other nearby prisons,” he said.
In February last year, dozens of inmates at the overcrowded Kerobokan prison on the resort island of Bali rioted and set parts of the facility on fire, sending outnumbered guards running.
The riots ended days later when heavily armed police stormed the prison.