A MIDDLE-AGED woman is presently sitting in a Kampot prison waiting to die while

local authorities remain unwilling to listen to pleas for clemency, Vigilance

human rights worker BK San said.

BK San said the woman was married in

1981 and thereafter subjected to five years of physical and mental abuse by her

alcoholic husband.

She bore two children, worked to raise them, and

complained to police and other agencies about the constant abuse, begging them

to help her, he said.

But she received no help. After being beaten and

raped by her drunk husband one night, she killed him as he slept.

In 1986

she was sentenced to 16 years jail. In the eight years she has spent there til

now, both her children have died - due to malnutrition and disease, BK San said

- as has her mother, In all three cases, the woman was not allowed to attend

their funerals.

"If she had just one domlung of gold the authorities

would let her go, but she has nothing," he said.

"She is waiting to die

in prison. She will not last another eight years," he said.

He said she

has told him that without her freedom and with all her family dead, her life is

over.

"I would like to help her get released. I can get her a job, giving

her proper respect and a small salary cooking for workers in a factory," he

said.