A/HRC/19/61/Add.2 Rights; the development of a national development strategy for the penitentiary system (“UMUT-2”) for the period 2011-2015; and three subsequent instructions issued by the Prosecutor General, in April, September and October 2011, on the prohibition of torture and the strengthening of prosecutorial control and oversight of prosecutorial negligence in cases of torture and ill-treatment. 35. The Special Rapporteur learned that, pursuant to Presidential Decree No. 41, various public advisory councils were established within the Ministry of the Interior and Prosecutor General’s office in Bishkek, Osh and Djalal-Abad, entrusted with monitoring places of detention. In addition, public monitoring councils, which comprise representatives from civil society, were created under the Ministry of the Interior, the State Service for the Execution of Punishments and the State Committee of National Security to monitor detention facilities and other closed institutions. Furthermore, a draft law on the police force and the prospect of reforming the Ministry of the Interior are both under discussion. The draft bill on the national centre for the prevention of torture has been finalized and is to be submitted to Parliament for discussion early in 2012. It is also encouraging that, since May 2011, three memorandums of understanding have been signed by prosecutors and civil society organizations – for Djalal-Abad province, for Osh City and for Osh province – providing for public councils to identify solutions and building confidence in the prosecutorial authorities. The first initiative of the public councils was the installation of closed-circuit cameras in some temporary detention facilities in Djalal-Abad province. 36. In addition, in 2010 and 2011, several monitoring initiatives were undertaken by various public advisory councils and the Parliamentary Committee to examine the conditions in temporary and pretrial detention facilities. The purpose of the monitoring visits was to, inter alia, propose budgetary allocations for the maintenance of the facilities. Of particular interest to the Special Rapporteur were the findings of the project on torture prevention in temporary detention facilities under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, initiated by the OSCE Centre in Bishkek, the Ombudsman and a group of civil society organizations. A. Practice of torture and ill-treatment 37. The Special Rapporteur received numerous accounts and eyewitness testimonies suggesting that torture and ill-treatment had been historically pervasive in the law enforcement sector. This practice has been intensified by the turbulence of the past two years with the ousting of President Bakiev in April 2010, followed by the violence that took place in the South in June 2010.6 During the violence in June 2010 and its aftermath, reports consistently highlighted the frequency and gravity of arbitrary detention, torture and illtreatment by law enforcement bodies. 38. Throughout the mission, testimonies of victims and their lawyers pointed to general patterns of torture and ill-treatment committed by police officers after arrest and during the first hours of informal interrogation. During interviews with victims, the Special Rapporteur heard multiple allegations of torture that shared the same pattern: asphyxiation with plastic bags and gas masks with no flow of oxygen; punches and beatings with truncheons; the application of electric shock and the introduction of foreign objects into the anus, or the threat of rape. Police stations, temporary detention facilities, the premises of criminal police departments of the Ministry of the Interior and the pretrial detention facility of the State Committee of National Security were the locations most often cited as where 6 10 Long-standing ethnic tensions in the south of the country escalated in 2010. The main outbreak of violence began in Osh in June and later spread to Djalal-Abad, resulting in several hundred deaths and more than 1,000 people injured (Prosecutor General’s Office).