Honduras blaze prisoners 'not charged'

Many of the prisoners in a Honduran jail where fire killed more than 350 inmates had never been charged, let alone convicted, according to a Honduran government report.

The report, sent to the United Nations this month, said 57% of some 800 inmates of the Comayagua farm prison north of the capital were either awaiting trial or being held as suspected gang members.

A fire that witnesses said was started by an inmate, tore through the prison on Tuesday night, burning and suffocating screaming men in their locked cells as rescuers desperately searched for keys.

Officials confirmed 358 dead, making it the world's deadliest prison fire in a century.

Honduran authorities said they are still investigating other possible causes based on prisoner accounts, including that the fire could have been set in collusion with guards to stage a prison break.

"All of this isn't confirmed, but we're looking into it," said attorney general's spokesman Melvin Duarte said.

Survivors told horrific tales of climbing walls to break the sheet metal roofing and escape, only to see prisoners in other cell blocks being burned alive. Inmates were found stuck to the roofing, their bodies fused to the metal.

From the time firefighters received a call at 10:59 pm local time, the rescue was marred by human error and conditions that made the prison ripe for catastrophe.

According to the report, obtained exclusively by the AP, on any given day there were about 800 inmates in a facility built for 500. There were only 51 guards by day and just 12 at night - the case at the time of the fire.

The prison has no medical or mental health care and the budget allows less than one dollar per day per prisoner for food. Prisoners only needed to bear a simple tattoo to be incarcerated under the strict Honduran anti-gang laws, the report said. The UN condemns the practice as a violation of international law.

"This tragedy could have been averted or at least not been so catastrophic if there had been an emergency system in all the penitentiaries in the country," human rights prosecutor German Enamorado told HRN Radio.

National prison system director Danilo Orellana declined to comment on the supervision or the crowded conditions in Comayagua, a prison farm where inmates grew corn and beans.

President Porfirio Lobo has suspended Orellana and other top prison officials.

Inside the prison, charred walls and debris showed the path of the fire, which burned through six barracks that had been crammed with 70 to 105 inmates each in four-level bunk beds.

Bodies were found piled up in the bathrooms, where inmates apparently fled to the showers, hoping the water would save them from blistering flames. Prisoners perished clutching each other in bathtubs and curled up in laundry sinks.

"It was something horrible," said survivor Eladio Chica, 40, as he was led away by police, handcuffed, to testify before a local court about what he saw. "I only saw flames, and when we got out, men were being burned, up against the bars, they were stuck to them."

A team of 17 pathologists were working in three groups in the capital's main morgue to identify the victims with the help of fingerprints and dental records. The government of Chile was sending a team of 14 pathologists to help.

About 115 bodies were in the morgue, after being moved by refrigerated truck overnight. At least six were burnt beyond recognition, Duarte said.

More than 800 relatives were staying in temporary housing south of the capital while they awaited the arrival of their loved ones' bodies.

The deadly inferno never had to happen.

The frantic inmate who started the fire gave warning, phoning the state governor and screaming he was going to burn the place down. After the man, who was not identified, lit a mattress a few minutes later, crews said they rushed to the prison, arriving two minutes after a call for help because the firehouse was nearby.

But the handful of guards held them out for a catastrophic 30 minutes, saying they thought the screams inside were a prison break and a riot. When rescuers finally were allowed in, they said they could not find keys or guards to unlock the barracks.

Fifteen minutes away, the US military's Southern Command operates Joint Task Force Bravo, where major search and rescue teams and fire squads are on standby. They were never dispatched.

Capt Candace Allen, a spokeswoman for Joint Task Force Bravo, said they can only send what they're asked for, so throughout the night they sent surgical masks, torches and Glowsticks. No one asked for firefighters.

On Thursday morning, officials continued their investigation at the prison, where murals of Catholic saints, Jesus Christ and psalms stand out in an otherwise miserable place. Two palm trees flank the front entrance where a sign reads: "Let there be justice, even if the world perishes."

Honduran authorities were investigating several separate allegations from prisoners about the cause of the fire, including the suggestion that it was caused by an electrical short and not arson.

Duarte said investigators had also been told that some prisoners had paid guards to set the fire in order to create chaos and allow a prison break.

"All of this isn't confirmed, but we're looking into it," he told The Associated Press.

"Conditions at Comayagua? I'd have to say among the worst in Honduras," said Ron Nikkel, president of Prison Fellowship International who visited the facility in 2005. "It was very congested, there's not enough food, it's dangerous and dirty."

The US State Department has criticised the Honduran government for harsh prison conditions, citing severe overcrowding, malnutrition, and lack of adequate sanitation.

"The ready access of prisoners to weapons and other contraband, impunity for inmate attacks against non-violent prisoners, inmate escapes, and threats by inmates and their associates outside prisons against prison officials and their families contributed to an unstable and dangerous penitentiary system environment," says the most recent State Department report on human rights in Honduras. "There were reports that prisoners were tortured or otherwise abused in, or on their way to, prisons and other detention facilities."

Human rights groups and the US government also say inmates with mental illnesses, as well as those with tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, are routinely held among the general prison population.

AP