Agency Wants Access to Prisoners

The International Red Cross has urged the Burmese government to give it access to hundreds of detainees in prisons and labor camps around the country, whose fate remains unknown.

Angelo Gnaedinger, the director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said yesterday that the ICRC had been denied access to Burma's prison camps since late 2005. The situation was now urgent, he said, as some camps were in the path of cyclone Nargis. "They have been swamped in these camps."

There are thought to be about 1,900 political prisoners in Burma, about 800 of whom were detained after the pro-democracy protests last year, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which is based along the Thai-Burmese border.

The cyclone tore off cell roofs at Insein prison in Rangoon, where 10,000 prisoners, including 300 political prisoners, are being held. After the storm they were herded together in a large hall. When inmates started a fire to keep warm the hall filled with smoke and the fire spread, triggering panic. Soldiers and police called in to deal with the riot killed at least 36 inmates.