A/HRC/7/3/Add.6 page 5 Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur was invited by the Government of Sri Lanka to undertake a visit to the country from 1 to 8 October 2007. 2. The purpose of the mission was to assess the situation of torture and ill-treatment in the country, and to strengthen a process of sustained cooperation with the Government to assist it in its efforts to improve the administration of justice. The Special Rapporteur expresses his appreciation to the Government for the full cooperation it extended to him. 3. The Special Rapporteur held meetings with government officials, including the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights, the Minister of Justice, the Chief Justice, the Attorney General, the Inspector General of Police, the Commissioner General of Prisons, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the army’s legal adviser on human rights, and the Secretary-General for the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process. 4. A primary focus of the visit was the inspection of detention facilities in the country, and in this regard, the Special Rapporteur expresses his appreciation to the Government for the respect of the terms of reference for the visit. In particular, he wishes to thank the Inspector General of Police and the Commissioner General of Prisons for opening up the prisons and police detention facilities without restrictions, including the carrying out of unannounced visits, and enabling him to conduct private interviews with detainees. In Colombo and vicinity, the Special Rapporteur visited Welikada Prison, Colombo Remand Prison, the New Magazine Prison (Female Ward), the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID), Mount Lavinia Police Station, Ratmalana Police Post, Panadura South Police Station, and Payagala North Police Station. In Galle, he visited the TID detention facility at Boosa. In Trincomalee and vicinity, he visited Trincomalee Prison, Trincomalee Police Headquarters (including CID), China Bay Police Station, Kantale Police Station, Polonnaruwa Police Station, and Polonnaruwa Prison. In and around Kandy, the Special Rapporteur visited Bogambara Prison, Katugastota Police Station, and Wattegama Police Station. In Trincomalee, the Special Rapporteur also visited a representative of the Tamileela Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), the group which broke away from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2004 under the leadership of Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, also known as Colonel Karuna Amman. 5. During the mission the Special Rapporteur met with a broad range of civil society organizations, lawyers, medical professionals, and representatives of international organizations (e.g. the United Nations country team, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Population Fund, the World Health Organization), the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the diplomatic corps.