How the prisoners live

The welfare of the prisoners is at the discretion of local military commanders and the officer in charge of a prison or detention centre can regulate things very much as he likes and determine how much of any official allocation for prisoners is actually spent on them.

In the prisons, accommodation is grossly overcrowded, unhygienic and forbidding. In Tanggerang Prison on the outskirts of Jakarta, three prisoners are confined to a cell 14 metres by 2 metres. In Padang Military Prison, Central Sumatra, cells built for four persons are used for between eight and 12 prisoners.

Accommodation at detention and interrogation centres is generally worse than at prisons. These units operate in converted old houses, and prisoners sleep in tiny, unventilated rooms or along half-exposed corridors.

The standard diet for political prisoners consists of two plates of rice a day, but this can vary in quantity. At the Padang Prison, the prisoners get only two handfuls of rice for each meal. With the rice the prisoners receive a small dish of watery vegetables, one minute piece of soybean cake and occasionally a small piece of salted dried fish.

Medical facilities are seriously lacking in all places of detention. There are no visits by doctors and no medicines are available at detention and interrogation centres. In cases of sickness the prisoners must rely on what they themselves or colleagues receive from outside, and if a visit to a clinic or hospital is required, this must be paid for by the detainee who has to pay transport expenses and give his military escort a good tip. Some prisons have a rudimentary medical service and some an ill-equipped hospital block, but doctor's visits are rare and medicines are scare and difficult to obtain. When prescriptions are issued by the doctor they must be bought and paid for by the relatives. Prisoners who have no relatives to visit them must rely on the prison stock of medicine for an occasional dose.