PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON TORTURE

Sir Nigel Rodley, Special Rapporteur on Torture of the Commission on Human Rights, told correspondents gathered this morning at the Palais des Nations at Geneva the annual report consists primarily the transmittal to countries of information received alleging torture in their countries or urgent information received expressing fears that torture might be taking place. The information had been sent to governments over the period of review, from December 1997 to December 1998. He had sent 64 letters to 59 countries on behalf of 400 individuals and 10 groups. There were also 39 letters sent to governments them of cases transmited in previous years.

In addition, he said, he had transmitted 122 urgent appeals to 41 governments on behalf of 380 individuals and of 20 groups. The best reply he could receive from a government was that the fears expressed in urgent appeals were not well founded, provided that that was the truth.

The section of his report containing conclusions and recommendations concentrated on some basic themes, all of which centred on the problem of impunity, he said. The impunity issue expressed itself in various ways, including the problem of prolonged incommunicado detention. Not only was that a problem in terms of creating the preconditions for torture, but also because the longer that period was -- the longer interrogators were unsupervised and had the detainee at their mercy -- the easier it was to conceal any ill treatment. There was also the question of impunity in terms of the judicial system bringing torturers to justice. Very often the police were under pressure to crack down on lawlessness and they sometimes must be tempted to see the infliction of pain as a means of cutting corners to achieve their principal objectives, forgetting that the corner they cut was the corner of the very law they were supposed to be enforcing.

Asked if he had any news about Abdullah Ocalan, the Special Rapporteur said he did not have any new information since the public appeal he had made when Mr. Ocalan was first detained. He wished to underline that the report on his visit to Turkey late last year focused on the fact -- and that was an improvement -- that Turkey had reduced its period of incommunicado detention. That had had a positive impact on the incidence of the most brutal forms of torture in the country. Nevertheless, a period of four to 10 days was still too long; a lot of mental and physical suffering could be inflicted during such a period. He was concerned that Mr. Ocalan could have access to the outside world in a shorter period, but that had not been the case.

Asked if he had received any response from the Ankara authorities concerning his appeal that Mr. Ocalan be treated fairly, Mr. Rodley said he was not aware of such a response.

Mr. Ocalan lawyers affirmed he was suffering psychological torture, a correspondent said, asking Mr. Rodley if that would prompt him to make another appeal. The Special Rapporteur said he needed more information on the lawyers' claims before he could answer the question.

A correspondent said the Special Rapporteur's report had elicited criticism from certain groups who compared it to the report of the working group on enforced disappearances. The working group had made a statement on the solution to the Kurdish question, the correspondent said, before asking why Mr. Rodley had not done the same. The Special Rapporteur said in his work he avoided pious political statements. As a Special Rapporteur on torture, it was not his function to express wishes about settlements of conflicts.

Asked for a general overview of how the Turkish Government was handling the issue of torture within the country, the Special Rapporteur said further progress was needed beyond the reduction of the time allowed for incommunicado detention. That would require a certain amount of time and education, but it would be difficult to identify any clear political initiative until the elections.

Asked if torture was systematic in Turkey, Mr. Rodley said it had been widespread and routine until a few years ago. Now, one could observe that it was limited to certain regions and that there had been a reduction in the incidence of the more brutal forms of torture. There had been an improvement, even if some forms of torture still remained.

A correspondent asked why the Special Rapporteur had not mentioned Iraq in his report. Mr. Rodley said that as there was a specific Special Rapporteur for Iraq, much of the information concerning torture was sent directly to that expert. Furthermore, much of the information he normally received came from non-governmental organizations and they were not that significant in Iraq.

Responding to a question on how he decided to visit a country, the Special Rapporteur said that, as China just did, he needed to be invited. Not all Governments liked to have the visit of the representative of an international body.

In response to further questions, he said China had indicated he could visit either at the end of this year or in the first half of next year. He would be going to that country at the end of this year. He would include Tibet in his itinerary.