The two-day seminar in the city of Osh (it ended on December 6) became the first step to improvement of conditions in Kyrgyz jails and detention cells.

According to Valentina Gritsenko of Justice (a human rights organization, one of the organizers of the seminar), chief wardens of detentions cells from three southern regions of Kyrgyzstan, prosecutors, and human rights activists attended the seminar. Those present discussed human rights principles and standards in detention cells and ways and means of human rights abuse prevention and improvement of conditions.

"I'm glad that the wardens present here think in terms of improvement of conditions in penitentiaries," Gritsenko told Ferghana.Ru news agency.

Sadykjan Mahmudov of the Osh-based Ray of Solomon Foundation (he sits on the Presidential Commission for Human Rights) said this organization had done a great deal to improve the state of affairs in local detention cells.

"We built walkways in the detention cells in three districts and in Osh itself," Mahmudov said. "Some premises were repaired."

According to Mahmudov, all these projects were financed by the OSCE Osh office.

"Three years of appeals to the government were a complete waste of effort. The government hasn't given us anything. As a matter of fact, even now inmate's daily food allowance amounts to only 11-12 soms [an equipment of approximately $0.25 - Ferghana.Ru] instead of 35 specified by the law," Mahmudov said. "Conditions are truly inhuman, and whoever find themselves inside frequently confess what they have never really done... They would do anything just to get out again."

Gritsenko said organizers had expected chief wardens from all over the country along with representatives of the Prosecutor General's Office and Interior Ministry but foul weather interfered and those from the capital and northern regions never made it to Osh on time.

The seminar was sponsored by the OSCE Center in Bishkek and office in Osh.