Prisoner riot in southern Thailand appeased

A riot staged by more than 100 prisoners Sunday morning at a prison in Thailand's southern border province of Yala ended peacefully after a negotiation with the provincial governor.

The riot was launched at the Central Prison in metropolitan area of Yala, one of the insurgency-plagued southernmost provinces of Thailand. More than 100 out of some 600 inmates at the jail were engaged in the riot to protest against alleged harsh rules imposed by the prison administration, a military source told Xinhua.

The rioters burnt down an office of police guards in the jail and were engaged in body conflicts with warders. The governor of Yala province, Boonsith Suwanarat, later came to the jail to hold a negotiation with the rioters, who in the end agreed to give up their protest peacefully.

Thailand's Corrections Department had issued a warning on Friday to all prisons throughout the country to be on alert, following an inmate protest Thursday at the provincial prison in southern Thailand's Nakhon Si Thammarat province, more than 200 kilometers northwest to Yala.

Thursday's incident involved some 200 prisoners who protested alleged abusive and inhumane treatment and rigid prison rules and ended up with the corrections department chief giving in to the inmates' demand to transfer five warders and not to prosecute the protesters.

The Corrections Department had ordered all detention facilities to draw a lesson from Thursday's incident. Prison commanders will be held responsible should similar incidents take place at their own facilities.

Source: Xinhua