VILNIUS, June 13 (AFP) - More inmates joined a hunger strike in Lithuanian prisons on Thursday to demand better conditions and treatment for HIV-positive detainees, who have contracted the virus through drug use inside jails.
Some 7,000 inmates, or 60 percent of the country's total, were refusing meals, up from 5,360 who launched the strike movement on Tuesday, said interior ministry spokesman Dainius Radzevicius.
"Inmates of Vilnius prison and the women's prison in Panevezys joined the hunger strike, and prisoners in some temporary detention centers are also refusing meals," Radzevicius told AFP.
The hunger strike was sparked by the poor conditions in the prisons, and an outbreak of the HIV virus in one facility where authorities failed to stop rampant intravenous drug abuse.
The prisoners are demanding better living conditions, more conjugal visits, more space, better food, and the right to keep refrigerators and other appliances in their cells.
They also demand treatment for HIV-infected prisoners, but want them kept separate at the Alytus facility where they contracted the virus.
The government should listen to the demands of the prisoners, urged prison and AIDS advocates.
"Most of them are just and should be heard by the government," said the director of the non-governmental Citizen Defense Fund, Stasys Kausinis.
Given the HIV outbreak, the government should move quickly to reduce crowding, and should pay more attention to the sexual needs of prisoners.
"To blame the HIV outbreak only to drugs is only half true. Most prisoners are 25-30 years-old, and they need more conjugal visits and leaves," Kausinis told AFP.
The situation is so dangerous that the prison administration should consider taking radical steps to stop the spread of HIV, the head of the country's AIDS center said.
"In principle I am for drug free prisons, but under current conditions I would support selling syringes in prison shops," said Saulius Caplinskas.
The Lithuanian parliament has begun consideration of a special budget amendment to provide an additional eight million litas (2.3 million euros/2.2 million dollars) to the country's underfunded prisons.
Under current regulations only 2.4 litas (0.70 euros/0.66 dollars) per prisoner per day are allocated for food.
The government also approved last week spending 32 million litas on a special program to fight drug use in prisons.
"We informed prisoners, that the money will be used to improve prison conditions, including building a rehabilitation center for HIV-infected inmates, but that this could not be done overnight," said Radzevicius.
But there is also considerable opposition to spending more on convicts.
"They want better food that most of pensioners can afford today," said Aloyzas Sakalas, a lawmaker from the ruling Social Democrat party.
Lithuania has had one of the lowest HIV infection rates in Europe, but the prison outbreak has nearly doubled its number of HIV cases to 576 in the country of 3.5 million people.
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