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Indonesian prison escape fugitives number 100

JAKARTA, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Around 100 prisoners escaped Indonesia's overcrowded Labuhan Ruku Penitentiary as riots and a fire destroyed much of the site, The Jakarta Post reported.

Police originally estimated that around 30 prisoners -- mostly convicted on drugs charges -- had escaped in the fire and clashes with security guards on Sunday.

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But police revised the figure upward on Tuesday.

"We are still verifying the number of the escaped inmates," Batubara Police chief Cmdr. Japerson Parningotan Sinaga told the Post.

North Sumatra Police chief Gen. Syarief Gunawan said that 31 fugitives had been recaptured and police had increased their efforts to find the rest of the prisoners.

The Post reported that thousands of inmates were involved in the riots in Labuhan Ruku prison in Batubara in the north of Sumatra, Indonesia's western-most island.

Fire destroyed around 80 percent of the site, leaving only a mosque, a church and a hall unscathed.

Prisoners were angry at the lack of Independence Day remission passes, the Post report said.

The Law and Human Rights Ministry granted Independence Day remissions to 67,349 inmates across Indonesia.

Destruction of the prison resulted in the transfer of several hundred prisoners at Labuhan Ruku to prisons around the country.

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Police said 167 of the 500 prisoners thought to have instigated the Labuhan had been transferred to various jails throughout North Sumatra province on Monday.

"We must complete the transfer today simply because Labuhan Ruku prison is no longer fit [for habitation] due to massive damage sustained in yesterday's fire," acting penitentiary director general Bambang Krisbanu said on Monday.

As a precaution against riots at other prison on Sumatra, police said they transferred 57 narcotics inmates from the Sungaipenuh Penitentiary to the Muara Sabak narcotics prison.

Previous unrest at prisons on Sumatra include a breakout last month of around 200 prisoners at Tanjung Gusta Penitentiary in Medan, North Sumatra.

The Jakarta Globe reported at the time that the prisoners – including 15 who were serving time for terrorist offenses -- had escaped after setting several offices on fire and storming the main gate late at night.

Power outages and water shortages were believed to have triggered the riot, the Globe reported.

There also was an unconfirmed report that five people, including two wardens, had been killed.

More prison riots can be expected as long as the facilities remain overcrowded and prisoners' rights are not respected, Eny Rofiatul from Legal Aid Institution, based in Jakarta, said.

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UCANews, a Catholic news service in Asia, reported Rofiatul saying Indonesian prisons have serious problems, particularly through overcrowding.

"It has made the prisons inhumane, dirty and failing to meet health standards," she said.

Legal and Human Rights Affairs Minister Amir Syamsuddin's order for police and soldiers to guard prisons across the archipelago won't stop the riots, she said.

The main issues are about a lack of good food and healthcare, she said.

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