is not high enough, prisoners are always kept in cells. MAHR have raised this problem with the Registrar and Prosecutor. The officials promised that the problem would be dealt with since the prison budget of CFA 100 million of 1991 had been raised to CFA 500 million. S ikasso The budgetary allocation for a prisoner each day was CFA 80 which was both inadequate and below the budgeted figure. the Prison Service left within a short time. There was the political will to improve prison conditions. Inadequate medical care was a major problem. Overcrowding and dilapidated buildings were other problems. Long pre-trial detention was a matter of serious concern. So was the question of untrained staff. Readers will notice that Mr. Guindo's observations corroborated views expressed by officials and findings during the first visit. Meeting with Mr. Tiebile Drame, Member of Parliament Interview with ex-Detainee Mrs. n eighteen year-old girl, she was brought to the NGO meeting by Camara. She was released from prison eighteen months prior to the interview, after being in detention for three and a half months without trial. According to her, she came to work as a maid in Bamako. A nephew of her mistress made her pregnant, but him and his family disowned the pregnancy. She gave birth to a still-born child. The police first accused her of abortion, and later of infanticide. A Magistrate ordered her release from detention because the case against her was not clear. Continuing her story, she stated that she was beaten upon arrival at the prison as well as during her detention. The pregnancy had made her very ill when she was brought to the prison, but she did not know to whom she should turn. Under constant lock, the 27 women in detention became very nervous, irritable and often fought. The food in prison was awful, and mosquitoes were a menace. On release from detention, BICE found her a new and well-behaved family. Mrs. Camara, who sat throughout the interview and acted as an interpreter, added that the new family was carefully selected by her, and she visited them almost daily. A Meeting with Mr. Saidou Guindo, Department of Political Affairs and Conflict Resolution, Ministry of Foreign Affairs A t 6.30 p.m. on Monday, 30 November the above gentleman did me the .i-lfavour of coming to my hotel for a meeting. A former employee of the Prison Administration, he was in charge of social rehabilitation between 19841989. The basic problems, then, which he thought still persisted were inadequate resources, human and material. For meaningful work in rehabilitation, doctors, psychologists and social workers were needed. These are not, however, available in the prison regime. Senior officials recruited into 12 in the case of my first visit, it was my fortune to have had a meeting with AsHonourable Mr. Tiebile Drame, Member of Parliament and former Minister of Arid and Semiarid zones. A greater fortune on this occasion, because unlike the first visit, our meeting was at the beginning, to be exact 29 November, and not at the end of my mission. Although a member of a political party aligned to the government in power, one cannot but be impressed with Mr. Drame's objectivity, always putting the case for each side as best as possible. Mr. Drame confirmed that the politicians who were in detention during my previous visit had been released. Though the atmosphere was less tense than on the earlier occasion, the basic problem was yet to be solved. The opposition still refused to participate in elections, legislative and administrative activities both at the national and local levels. They demand a cancellation of all previous elections, and do not recognise institutions brought into being as a result of those elections (President, National Assembly and Local Councils, for instance). Discussions had, however, started between the government and the opposition, and he hoped that a satisfactory solution would be found to the impasse which began in April 1997. The long interval between the meeting of the two sides should provide food for thought for each side, and lead to a display of realism. It was a hopeful sign that Rural Council election which was originally scheduled for November 1998 had been postponed to April, 1999 in order to allow dialogue and negotiations to continue. The 1997 law passed by the National Assembly on elections, when the opposition was part of the legislature, is the sticking point. Mr. Dram& was quick to add that some members of the opposition in Segou, and student leaders in Bamako were in detention for burning property of the governing party. While the opposition characterise the incidents as political, the government views them as criminal. 13