8 CPT: 11TH GENERAL REPORT ACTIVITIES IN 2000 Visits 1. The CPT organised 15 visits totalling some 160 days during 2000, an increase of 10 days as compared to 1999. A list of the countries and places of detention visited by CPT delegations in 2000 is set out in Appendix 4. 2. The CPT carried out 10 periodic visits: to Albania, Cyprus, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, the Russian Federation, the Slovak Republic and Ukraine. This was the first time that the CPT had visited Lithuania. The Russian Federation received its second periodic visit within two years, the CPT's delegation focusing its attention on the Siberian region. Facilities for immigration detainees continued to figure prominently in visiting programmes. Further, for the first time in any country, the CPT delegation which visited Germany examined the situation in homes where elderly persons may be placed involuntarily. 3. Five ad hoc visits were organised, two to the North Caucasian region of the Russian Federation (in late February/early March and in April), two to Turkey (in July and December), and one to the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova (in November). 4. The ad hoc visits to the North Caucasian region were triggered by the current conflict in the Chechen Republic, the aim being to examine the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty in that part of the Russian Federation. The preliminary observations made by the CPT's delegation at the end of the February/March 2000 visit were published on 3 April 2000, with the authorisation of the Russian authorities. In those observations, it was pointed out that the information gathered by the delegation strongly indicated that many persons had been physically ill-treated in a detention facility located at Chernokozovo (a village in the north-west of the Chechen Republic) during the period December 1999 to early February 2000. The Russian authorities were requested to carry out a thorough and independent inquiry into events at the detention facility during that period. However, the delegation also stressed that it was satisfied that, at the time of the visit, persons detained in the Chernokozovo facility were not being physically ill-treated. In the light of all the information gathered during the visit, the delegation also recommended that members of the Russian military forces and law enforcement agencies involved in the operation in the North Caucasus be reminded that no circumstances whatsoever can justify the infliction of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment upon persons who are in the custody of State authorities. To date, the Russian authorities have not authorised the publication of the preliminary observations made by the delegation which carried out the April 2000 visit, or of the report on the two ad hoc visits subsequently drawn up by the CPT1. 5. One of the main purposes of the ad hoc visit to Turkey in July 2000 was to examine the steps being taken by the Turkish authorities to introduce smaller living units for prisoners and, more specifically, the F-type prison project. This is a controversial issue. The CPT made clear in the reports on its August 1996 and October 1997 visits to Turkey (which have already been published) that in principle it has no objections to the Turkish authorities' plans; large-capacity dormitories of the kind commonly found in Turkish prisons are for various reasons not a satisfactory means of accommodating inmates. However, the CPT has also repeatedly emphasised that moves towards smaller living units must be accompanied by measures to ensure that prisoners spend a reasonable part of the day engaged in purposeful activities outside their living units. The introduction of smaller living units must under no circumstances be allowed to lead to a generalised system of small-group isolation. The ad hoc visit enabled the CPT to explore this matter in depth with the Turkish authorities. In the course of the visit, the delegation also reviewed the treatment and physical conditions of detention of persons deprived of their liberty by the police, in particular in the Istanbul metropolitan area. 1 The CPT carried out a further ad hoc visit to the North Caucasian region in March 2001, and on 10 July 2001 made a public statement concerning the Chechen Republic of the Russian Federation.