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A place for Forign Prisoners other than GITMO
I thought the Gulag had been closed.POTMA, RussiaâThe 600-kilometer journey from Moscow to Potma is a journey back to the gulag. Millions passed through a similarly bleak and snowy landscape and then along densely wooded roads to forest camps such as Potma. The sense of returning to the Soviet prison system continues as you pass through the campâs gate and past its watchtower. Time seems to be in slow motion; the rooster crowing on a nearby fence adds to the surreal sense of walking onto a film set. In fact, on occasion, time seems to have frozen or be rewinding. In offices, halls, and corridors, portraits of Lenin still hang where a picture of President Vladimir Putin might be expected. To call this the gulag is more than a flight of imagination. Potma was part of the Soviet gulag (though not the gulag of the Great Purges), and its unusual featureâall its inmates come from countries beyond the former Soviet Union, making it Russiaâs only prison camp for foreignersâis also what distinguished it in the Soviet era. Potma is an anachronism, something that the head of the regional prison service freely admits. "There are no special institutions where foreigners live separately anywhere in the world,â says Mikhail Pobudilin. âHere this has come about. I do not think that is right, though.â Potma also continues the gulag tradition of forced labor. Prisoners sew army uniforms, and make chess sets and furniture. Prisoners can be fined for deliberate underperformance, while repeated failure to meet targetsâor vandalism and sabotageâcan be punished with a spell in solitary confinement. How long prisoners work every day in forest camps such as Potma is a matter of dispute. Karinna Moskalenko, a Moscow lawyer who defends foreigners in criminal cases, says women prisoners work for 10 hours a day, six days a week, and sometimes Sundays. That is a âpure lie,â says Pobudilin. At least here in Mordovia, a region famous only for its 16 prison camps and red currants, the working day is eight hours long and five days a week, he says. âPotma is the gulag. Potma is frightening,â Moskalenko insists. Erik Thygessen, a Norwegian welder sent to Potma for smuggling three kilograms of cocaine into St. Petersburg, agrees that Potma can be frightening. He spent his early days in the camp living in fear. Certainly, on arriving here, it can seem like a home to fear: a huddle of prisoners behind the metal fence turned and hid inside a small wooden shed when a camera was raised. Clearly, though, for some men, the fear eased. When asked whether the money he was offered for smuggling drugs was worth the risk, another Erik, a Swedish stoker, smiles and says, âI think so, yes.â If the other prisoners feel the same, the Russian authorities could have a problem: about 90 percent of foreign prisoners were convicted for smuggling, selling, or having drugs. In fact, judging by Erikâs response, perhaps Russiaâs foreign prisoners should be thankful that the authorities have not reformed the prison system. âHistorically during the Soviet era, there was some sort of an individual approach to this category [of prisoners]," says Pobudlin. The attitude persists. âRussians are Russians,â says Potmaâs Deputy Governor Igor Zyuzin dismissively. âForeigners need another approach. They are brought up to respect human rights and their own dignity. You must be different with them than you would be with the average Russian Vanya [a diminutive from the name Ivan].â I swear Iâm not Russian. Borscht, never heard of the stuff. Ow... The message is echoed by Gennady Vodrin, the campâs press spokesman, who says âone should be more correct with [foreigners]. Embassies come to see them. People who work here are different.â Hate to be in one of the camps for locals. How different the guards are and how different the conditions are can be hard to tell. The seeming hyperbole and unreassuring comparisons that Vodrin produces certainly undermine confidence in their statements. âNinety-five percent [of the prisoners] are happy that they are here,â he claims. âIn Afghanistan, a prison is just a hole in a cliff. In China, they just shoot them all.â Maybe we can rent some space for the overflow of jihadis.
Posted by: Super Hose 2003-11-04 |
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