United Nations supports a probe into Honduras prison fire that killed 355 inmates
23.05.12
In a message to Hondurans cited by Vatican radio the pope said he would keep the victims in his prayers and invoked the protection of the Virgin of Suyapa, whose shrine is in a suburb of the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said that prison conditions were a major concern for the Catholic Church worldwide, calling them “a measure of the civilization of any country.”
“The fact that people have made mistakes should not deprive them of their dignity, should not justify them being brutalised by a climate of violence that degrades them,” he said.
There is growing resentment in Honduras over the conduct of prison guards at the overcrowded Comayagua prison.
Survivors of a Honduran prison fire accused guards of leaving inmates to die inside their cells and shooting at others who tried to escape the flames.
“It was total chaos. People were running for their lives, shots were being fired. People were being burned alive,” said prison chaplain Reynaldo Moncada, who arrived at the scene shortly after the conflagration broke out.
Source: National Post (blog)