KIGALI, Dec 6 (AFP) - More than 300 prisoners have died of various illnesses between January and October this year, prison director Jeanne-Francoise Nyirampabwa said Monday.

"During January alone, 81 detainees ... died of diarrheal diseases, typhoid and so-called 'opportunistic' illnesses" contracted by HIV-positive prisoners," she said.

"The last report we received dates from October 31 and says 311 detainees died since the start of this year," Nyirampabwa said.

The report did not include monthly figures from some prisons, and had no figures at all from others.

Most inmates of the country's overcrowded prisons are awaiting trial on charges stemming from the 1994 genocide in the country, where up to 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered.

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