E/CN.4/1989/15 page 36 178. Recently enacted laws (like Act No. 24.651, amending the Penal Code by introducing a new section on "Crimes of terrorism" and Act No. 24.700 which regulates police investigation and adjudication of crimes of terrorism) lay down the rules which have to be complied with in case of arrest on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities. An arrested person may be held for a preliminary inquiry for a period of 15 days; the public prosecutor (fiscal), however, must be informed within 24 hours of the arrest and must not only be present at all investigatory stages but is in charge of the investigation. Access to a lawyer is also guaranteed. 179. It was reported, however, that those rules were scarcely heeded by the armed forces in rural areas under emergency law. It had become common practice, according to those reports, for large numbers of people to be taken from the streets or from their houses during round-ups and brought to the military barracks where they were interrogated. After a certain period, which might range from a couple of days to several weeks, a number of them were released (often left on the roadside, with their hands and feets tied). According to the same reports, the round-ups were often arbitrary in nature and people were just arrested in order to find out whether they could provide the armed forces with information. It was alleged that, during such interrogations, torture was commonly practised and that it was no exception that interrogated persons died as a result of torture. 18 0. It was also submitted that the initiation of habeas corpus procedures, if declared admissible, usually produced no result, since the military authorities simply denied that the person concerned had been detained. 181. The public prosecutor (fiscal), who was authorized to carry out investigations whenever a disappearance was brought to his attention, often had the same experience. 182. It was also reported that torture was practised at the Lima headquarters of the Division against Terrorism (DIRCOTE), a special branch of the Investigatory Police (PIP). In that context, concern was expressed about the fact that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which had been given access to prisons and police stations from 1984 on, had been informed in April 1987 that visits to DIRCOTE detention centre were cancelled (a similar measure had been taken in January 1987 by the political-military command with regard to the right to visit prisons and police stations in the Province of Ayacucho at the beginning of 1988, however, those visits were resumed). The Minister of the Interior told the Special Rapporteur that it was virtually impossible for torture to take place in the DIRCOTE detention centre since all interrogations were conducted in the presence and under the supervision of the public prosecutor (fiscal), the representative of the Ministerio Publico, which is completely independent and is not under the orders of the authorities. Since a fully independent person was always present during interrogations, the ICRC visits had been found to be superfluous. 2. Evaluation and recommendations 183. The political situation in Peru is extremely complex. The problem created by the activities of subversive movements are compounded by the fact that the country is seriously plagued by the production of, and traffic in, narcotics. It is even more difficult to determine exactly all the causes which have resulted in the present problems. From all the talks the