E/CN.4/2004/56/Add.2 page 5 5. During his mission the Special Rapporteur visited the cities of Madrid, Vitoria and Bilbao. In Madrid, he held meetings with, among others, the following personalities and authorities: the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Ramón Gil-Casares; the Minister of the Interior, Angel Acebes; the Attorney-General, Jesús Cardenal; the Secretary of State for Justice, Rafaël Catalá; the Director-General for the Modernization of Justice, Alberto Dorrego; the Director-General of Legislative Policy, Félix Fernandez-Shaw; the Secretary of State for Security, Ignacio Astarloa; the Director-General of the Civil Guard, Santiago López Valdivieso; the Deputy Director-General for Operations of the Civil Guard, General Faustino Vicente Pellicer; the President of the Criminal Law Chamber of the Supreme Court, Luís Román Puerta; the President of the Audiencia Nacional, Carlos Divar; members of the General Council of the Judiciary; the Director-General for Affairs relating to the United Nations Security Council, Agustín Núñez; the Director of the Human Rights Office, Juan Manuel Cabrera; the Deputy Director for Operations at Police Headquarters, Pedro Díaz Pintado; the Spanish Ombudsman, Enrique Múgica Herzog; the Director-General of Prisons, Angel Yuste; the First and Second Deputy Chairpersons of the Parliamentary Commission on Justice and the Interior, Francisco Subirón (People’s Party) and Carmen del Campo (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party); and member of parliament Gustavo de Aristegui. 6. In Vitoria, Basque Autonomous Region (Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco), the Special Rapporteur held meetings with the following personalities: the Ombudswoman of the Basque Country (Defensora Del Pueblo, “Ararteko”), Mercedes Agundez; the Government’s delegate in the Basque Autonomous Region, Enrique Villar Montero; the Head of the Police in the Basque Autonomous Region, Enrique Barón; the Procurador en las Juntas Generales de Alava, Alfredo Marco Tabar; and members of the Basque Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights. In Bilbao, he held meetings with the following personalities: the Minister of the Interior of the Basque Government, Javier Balza; the Minister of Justice of the Basque Government, Joseba Azcárraga; the Deputy Counsellor for Citizen Security, Mikel Legarda; and the Director of Human Rights of the Basque Government, José María Urquijo Azcárate. 7. The Special Rapporteur also met persons who themselves or whose relatives had allegedly been victims of torture or other forms of ill-treatment and received verbal and written information from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including the following: Amnesty International Spain, Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos (APDH), Basta Ya, Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado, Etxerat, Federación de Asociaciones de SOS-Racismo, International Federation of ACAT (Action of Christians for the Abolition of Torture), Oficina de Atención a Víctimas del Terrorismo, Fundación por la Libertad, Elkarri, Gesto por la Paz, Torturaren Aurkako Taldea and Salhaketa. Finally, he also met with members of the legal profession and the academic world. 8. The Special Rapporteur wishes to thank the Government of Spain for having invited him and for extending full cooperation during the mission. He also expresses his gratitude to the United Nations Information Centre for organizing the press conference at the end of his visit.