Why Paris builds high security prison in France Guyani – BBC News in Serbian
From 1852. Under the early 1950s, in France Guyana, the overseas territory of France in South America, was a notorious criminal colony, which became famous in the world thanks to the film butterfly (Papillon) from 1973. years, recorded by the same name.
French penal colonies around the world were mostly housed in poor, recently colonized territories, where European force sent « undesirable » prisoners and forced them to work.
During that period, in France Guyana there were more than 70,000 convicts from continental French and other parts of the French colonial empire.
However, more than seven decades by ending that dark chapter of history, the latest announcement of the French government awakened painful memories in the citizens of French Guiana.
In mid-May, the French Minister of Justice Žerald Darmanen announced Plans to build a new high-security prison in the Amazon rainforest.
According to him, the « extremely strict » regime will be implemented in prison.
During the visit to the Cayena, the capital of French Guiana, Darmanen said the new prison will have 500 seats, of which 60 will be reserved for « drug traffickers », as well as a special department for radical Islamists.
In a statement for the French weekly Journal du Dimanche (JDD), Darmanen said that the prison should « neutralize » the most dangerous drug-bosses by applying stricter rules on visits and communication with the external world.
Darmanen said that the institution would also serve to close local criminals, as well as in Guadeloupe and Martinic, two French overseas territories in the Caribbean, is acting as extremely dangerous, « media transmitted.
‘Back to colonialism’
The announcement caused fierce reactions in France Guyana.
Davi Rimane, Prophet from French Guyana from the left-wing party La France Insoumisehe called the decision « Fully arbitrary. »
« The Minister was not consulted with anyone from French Guyana with anyone and that is why he is such a strong resistance of politicians, as well as citizens in Guyana, » he told BBC Mundo.
« Switching to French Guyan’s infamous prisoners, which people in France don’t want, reminds us of a terrible and painful past. »
Rimane adds that France cannot simply send all its undesirable prisoners to French Guiana.
« We are not a trash can of France, » he says.
Minister Darmanen rejects comparison with the criminal colony.
« Compare (Planned prison) with the criminal colony is an insult for the French Republic and the Administration of the Prison System, » said during the sessions of the Senate Commission.
« Local criminals have enough to fill like this institution, » he added.
Recently, French Prime Minister France Bajra for the French television network BFMTV said he would agree to the construction of prison, provided that they were consulting with the political representatives of French Guiana.
Key hub for drug trade
Paris believes French Guyana a key hub for drug trafficking, due to its proximity to Colombia and Peru, famous for cocaine.
At the airport in the kayen, the authorities often arrest the so-called « courier » in an attempt to smuggle narcotics towards Europe.
According to the estimates of the French government and state media, about 20 percent of cocaine consumed in continental France originates from France Guyana.
The value of the prison construction project is estimated at 400 million euros.
The prison is planned to be located in the isolated part of the Amazon rainforest, a few kilometers from the city of Lorana di Maronija, in the northwest of French Guiana.
Saint Lauran Di Maroni is known as the place from which the convicts were taken to the infamous prison on the devil’s island, where the action of the book takes place Butterfly French writer Anri Šarije.
Prison conditions on the devil island were notoriously cruel, and mortality rate, due to systematic abuse, attempts to escape and disease.
Book Butterfly is the story of Šaari’s life on this island as a convict for a life-friendly murder murder.
Due to the cruel regime and the surrounding inaccessible jungle, the escape was almost impossible, but he eventually managed to escape in the end.
The book was screened twice, and in the first film adaptation from 1973. the main roles were interpreted by Steve Mekvin and Dastin Hoffman.
‘Bad idea’
Marion Vanija, a criminology expert at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, believes that a new project is a form of prison brutality.
It points out that prisoners will be housed in a « extremely remote » area, thousands of miles away from home France.
« The original plan was to build a prison to solve the problem of overcrowding in France Guyana, but now the government wants to send dangerous prisoners and drugs from continental France, » she told BBC Mundo.
« It’s a bad idea. »
Again 2017. within the so-called French Guyana, Paris presented a project for « improving the judicial system in our overseas territories », in order to relieve the old prison remirrer-Mongoli (Rémire-Montjoly) In the suburbs of the coin.
That prison, the only one in France Guyana, can accommodate 614 convicts, but she currently stays in it as much as 983.
Many French Guiana residents claim that this initial project did not imply the construction of a strictly kept department or moving drug traffickers and Islamists from other French territories.
A place for ‘undesirable’ members of society
Local authorities of French Guiana, represented by the Regional Assembly, also opposed to this project sharply and call it a « insane replica » of the old penitentiary.
The Criminal Colony in France Guyana was part of a broader social insulation system, aimed at allowing everyone who was considered « undesirable ».
At that time, Paris argued that such measures allow continental France to break free from the convict, and simultaneously provide cheap labor for South American Colony, which allegedly encouraged its economic development.
After the abolition of the slavery, the workforce was lacking in the French colonies.
However, historians today point out that bringing prisoners from French colonies did not bring significant economic benefits to French Guiana.
‘Human rights violations’
The project is not caused by controversy just because it awakens the darkness of the darkness, but also because of serious human rights issues.
Marion Vaniji warns that the movement of prisoners in such remote areas causes concern.
« Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights Protects the right to private and family life.
« The European Court of Human Rights has already ruled that the movement of prisoners away from their families, without valid justification, can be a violation of the law, » she explains.
It also warns that the possible deportation of French citizens from parent France would mean that these people are denied the possibility of reintegration into society.
« And this proposal is even more terrier due to a bad health system in France Guyana.
« Guyana is a territory that often affects epidemics of dengue fever and cycing of viral disease, and hospitals do not have adequate equipment, » Vanija points out.
Stresses and that Article 3 of European Conventions for Human Rights and Fundamental Freedom prohibits inhuman and degrading treatment, as well as prison conditions without proper medical care.
« There are concern about health and medical conditions of future prisoners, » she says.
The prison could be opened for 2028. years.
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