Braun and [Tina Jmaiff] had their parole of an earlier 14-year sentence for arson revoked in March, after they set their clothes on fire on the doorstep of Doukhobor leader John Verigen in Grand Forks.

Six representatives of the Doukhobor communities in the West Kootenay came to see three women and convince them to end their fast. They also visited Attorney-General Colin Gabelmann and other officials in an attempt to get some help for Braun, Jmaiff and [Pauline Berikoff].

Three imprisoned Doukhobor women, seriously ill after a 52-day hunger strike, agreed to start eating Wednesday, while members of their community continue to lobby government officials for their release.

The three women, Mary Braun, 71, Tina Jmaiff, 67 and Pauline Berikoff, 54 - all members of the small Sons of Freedom sect, began the strike to protest their continued incarceration.

Braun and Jmaiff had their parole of an earlier 14-year sentence for arson revoked in March, after they set their clothes on fire on the doorstep of Doukhobor leader John Verigen in Grand Forks.

After they were arrested, Berikoff burned her clothes outside the police station in support of the older women and was charged and sentenced to a year for mischief.

But community members say prison is not the place for the three women, especially when their acts of fire-starting are part of a religious tradition that considers fire a cleansing mechanism.

"There is no way they should have been dying here over something so small," Freedomite Peter Slastukin said Wednesday, at the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women, where he was visiting the women. "We were scared the women would keep fasting."

Facility director of operations, John Pastorek, said he was relieved the women had decided to resume eating because their conditions were deteriorating.

Before the 50-day fast, they had only eaten for four days after ending another lengthy hunger strike.

Earlier this week, parole officials rejected parole for the women, despite a detailed plan from all four Doukhobor sects to oversee their release into the community.

Six representatives of the Doukhobor communities in the West Kootenay came to see three women and convince them to end their fast. They also visited Attorney-General Colin Gabelmann and other officials in an attempt to get some help for Braun, Jmaiff and Berikoff.