VZCZCXRO5686
RR RUEHROV
DE RUEHDJ #1261/01 3051529
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 011529Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY DJIBOUTI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0977
INFO IGAD COLLECTIVE
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DJIBOUTI 001261 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF/E AND DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM CASC PGOV EAID KJUS SOCI DJ
SUBJECT: DJIBOUTI PRISON VISIT: AS CONDITIONS CONTINUE TO IMPROVE, 
GODJ ASKS FOR USG ASSISTANCE 
 
REF: 08 DJIBOUTI 753 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY.  During an October 22 visit to Djibouti's Gabode 
Prison, EmbOffs noted that conditions continued to improve.  A new 
prison guard force was fully operational, and had created a 
noticeably calmer and more orderly atmosphere.  Aging and 
inadequate physical infrastructure contributed to some persistent 
problems, such as filled-to-capacity cell blocks.  However, EmbOffs 
noted that prisoners received adequate food and medical treatment, 
and that women, minors, and sick prisoners were held separately. 
There were no AmCit prisoners.  In welcoming the U.S. visit, the 
Minister of Justice and prison officials requested that the USG 
consider helping Djibouti improve prison conditions not just 
through observation, but with concrete support-such as assistance 
with new infrastructure, or help in forging partnerships with local 
or international nongovernmental organizations working on issues of 
prisoner well-being and rehabilitation.  END SUMMARY. 
 
 
 
¶2. (SBU) ConOff, PolOff, and ConAsst visited Djibouti's Gabode 
Prison on October 22.  The visit had been requested via diplomatic 
note and was coordinated through the Ministry of Justice.  Director 
of Penitential Administration Mr. Salah Djama and Capt. Mohamed 
Djama Yonis of the Penitential Security Service (PSS) accompanied 
EmbOffs on the prison tour, which included the PSS headquarters, 
women's wards for sentenced and pre-trial prisoners, a minors' 
ward, infirmary and sick wards, selection of men's wards, and 
prison kitchen facilities.  While the visit did not include every 
prison facility and cell block, EmbOffs were shown every area they 
requested to see, and the requested areas to be visited were not 
announced in advance.  Excluding small temporary holding facilities 
in outlying towns and the temporary police detention facility at 
Nagad, Gabode Prison is Djibouti's only prison.  According to 
Ministry of Justice and local officials, renovations on a smaller 
prison in the northern town of Obock are now complete, but the 
facility is not yet in use. 
 
 
 
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PRISONER COUNT: A FULL HOUSE, MOSTLY DJIBOUTIAN 
 
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¶3. (SBU) Prison officials showed EmbOffs the daily accounting sheet 
showing 519 prisoners for October 22.  Of this number, 231 had been 
sentenced, while the remaining 288 were awaiting trial.  There were 
26 women and five minors.  Capt. Yonis said that a decade ago, most 
prisoners in Djibouti had been foreigners.  Now, he said, usually 
about three-quarters of the prisoners were Djiboutian.  On October 
22, there were 321 Djiboutians (sixty-two percent), 163 Ethiopians 
(thirty-one percent), 29 Somalis (six percent), 2 Yemenis, and 4 of 
other nationalities.  There were no/no AmCit prisoners.  The prison 
had recently housed a record high of about 700 prisoners, before 
130 youths implicated in juvenile delinquency and stone-throwing 
incidents were granted a Presidential pardon from their six-month 
sentences on October 14. Gabode's top realistic capacity, Director 
Salah said, is probably around 500.  The Minister of Justice told 
PolOff October 14 that the decision had been made to pardon the 130 
youth offenders in order to allow them to go back to school, 
instead of likely sinking back into delinquency after finishing 
their sentences. 
 
 
 
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NEW PRISON GUARD SERVICE BRINGS AN ORDERLY 
 
ATMOSPHERE TO AGING FACILITIES 
 
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-- 
 
 
 
¶4. (SBU) EmbOffs began the prison visit with a tour of the adjacent 
headquarters building of the newly-established Penitential Security 
 
DJIBOUTI 00001261  002 OF 003 
 
 
Service (PSS), which has fully replaced the previous national 
police guard force.  Most applicants for the PSS were required to 
hold at least a high-school diploma, and were in general more 
educated than the previous police guards.  The PSS received 
training from a Senegalese expert, and continued to receive some 
training from the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), 
which visited the prison every three to four months.  The PSS 
consists of about 100 staff, of whom 30 are administrative and 70 
operational, including 9 female guards.  EmbOffs noted that 
following the transition to PSS guards, the atmosphere in the 
prison was noticeably calmer and more orderly.  Prison officials 
reported that incidents of collaboration between guards and 
prisoners to subvert prison rules had decreased.  Capt. Yonis said 
that while the mild narcotic khat was technically not allowed in 
the prison, it was occasionally tolerated, both because it is legal 
and widely consumed in Djibouti, and because it tended to have a 
calming effect on those who chew it.  Capt. Yonis said that prison 
guards occasionally used temporary isolation of one or two hours to 
discipline prisoners who acted out or started fights, and that this 
was generally effective. 
 
 
 
¶5. (SBU) Gabode Prison's main original construction, Capt. Yonis 
said, dates from the 1950s.  Gabode Prison is located in Djibouti 
City, on prime waterfront property close to the President's 
personal residence.  While Capt. Yonis and Salah said that GODJ had 
long been discussing construction of a new prison facility outside 
of the city, they had no information on imminent plans.  EmbOffs 
visited one of several large cell blocks for men, each holding 
about fifty prisoners.  The cell blocks all provided adequate water 
for washing and drinking, and adequate toilet facilities.  However, 
they were filled to capacity.  Capt. Yonis and Salah said that 
while prison officials did their best to separate sentenced 
prisoners from pre-trial detainees, space constraints made 
achieving full separation difficult, and it was not always 
possible.  They noted that while lengthy pre-trial detention was 
still a problem, they had seen great improvement from previous 
years.  While previously there had been some cases of detainees 
waiting six years for trial, now pre-trial detention generally did 
not exceed three years. 
 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) EmbOffs also visited quarters for women (including 
separate quarters for sentenced prisoners and pre-trial detainees) 
and quarters for minors.  The minors all had cot-style beds, and a 
television.  In the women's quarters, EmbOffs saw one child of 
about nine months whose mother was a prisoner.  Capt. Yonis and 
Salah said that young children were generally allowed to stay with 
their mothers if necessary.  However, in this case, prison 
officials had been trying to find a better solution for this child, 
whose mother was suffering from serious mental illness.  Currently, 
another female prisoner was caring for the child, who appeared 
clean and well-fed, but who did not have a crib.  Prison officials 
noted that sufficient mental health care was very difficult to find 
in Djibouti. 
 
 
 
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HEALTH CARE AND FOOD: BASIC BUT ADEQUATE 
 
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¶7. (SBU) Capt. Yonis and Salah said that a large portion of the 
prison's annual budget of 18 million DJF (just over USD 101,694) 
was dedicated to purchasing food for prisoners.  Prisoners were fed 
three meals a day, with meat served on alternate days.  EmbOffs 
visited the kitchen facilities, which were adequate but 
rudimentary, and saw rice being prepared for the mid-day meal. 
Salah also said that families who wished to bring food to prisoners 
were allowed to do so. 
 
 
 
¶8. (SBU) Salah and Capt. Yonis said that the prison had a small 
pharmacy, staffed by several nurses and a doctor who visited four 
times a week.  Serious cases were evacuated to Peltier Hospital, 
Djibouti's main public hospital.  The GODJ paid for all medical 
care for prisoners.  Top health concerns among the prison 
population included tuberculosis, bronchitis, HIV/AIDS, and 
 
DJIBOUTI 00001261  003 OF 003 
 
 
diabetes.  Salah estimated that about a dozen prisoners were 
HIV-positive, and were receiving medication.  Salah said that 
although the prisoner intake process included a health evaluation, 
one issue was the difficulty of knowing which prisoners were 
suffering from which illnesses.  Prison and medical staff could and 
did suggest to prisoners that looked unwell that they consider an 
HIV/AIDS test.  Seriously ill prisoners were separated from the 
general population.  EmbOffs visited one sick ward, which appeared 
adequate, but basic and filled-to-capacity.  ICRC officials have 
previously reported that ICRC provides monthly deliveries of soap, 
bleach, and cleaning powder to prisoners. 
 
 
 
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GODJ REQUESTS USG ASSISTANCE, 
 
NGO PARTNERSHIPS 
 
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¶9. (SBU) In welcoming EmbOffs to Gabode Prison, Salah underlined 
that the GODJ was happy to host such visits in a spirit of 
transparency.  However, he said, the GODJ was also looking not just 
for "reports," but for partnerships with donor countries to help 
further improve prison conditions.  Capt. Yonis said that the new 
PSS was mandated not only to assure security at the prison, but to 
rehabilitate prisoners.  While security was the first concern, 
Capt. Yonis said, the PSS was looking to work on rehabilitation, 
and would welcome partnerships with local or international NGOs to 
further this goal.  The GODJ is already working with UNICEF on 
issues of juvenile justice, he said.  Similarly, Capt. Yonis and 
Salah said, if there were an NGO or religious group interested in 
building a church for prisoners' use, such assistance would be 
welcomed.  Currently prisoners have access to a mosque, but there 
is no other religious building. 
 
 
 
¶10. (SBU) In an October 14 meeting with PolOff, Minister of Justice 
Mohamed Barkhat Abdillahi said that the GODJ was planning to 
construct several new buildings and facilities at the Gabode Prison 
site, including new quarters for female prisoners and for minors, a 
playing field, and a rehabilitation center.  Minister Abdillahi 
requested USG assistance for these projects, noting that the GODJ 
was informally approaching donors on this issue and would follow up 
with a more formal request at a later date. 
 
 
 
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COMMITTED TO TRANSPARENCY; BUT 
 
LOOKING FOR CONCRETE HELP, TOO 
 
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¶11. (SBU) COMMENT.  For several years, the GODJ has readily allowed 
EmbOffs to visit Gabode Prison, and has openly acknowledged both 
improvements and shortcomings in prison conditions.  While the GODJ 
clearly wants to guarantee that prison conditions meet or exceed 
international standards, it also acknowledges that it often lacks 
the financial and human resources to do so.  In requesting more 
direct collaboration with the USG to improve prison conditions, the 
GODJ has shown that it welcomes international scrutiny of its 
prisons, but is also seeking more concrete partnerships to reach 
its goals.  Post will continue to engage with prison officials, and 
appreciates Washington guidance on what resources may be available 
to help Djibouti improve its prison system.  END COMMENT. 
SWAN