E/CN.4/1990/17/Add.1 page 6 20. If a suspect belongs to the military, exactly the same rules apply, except that in such a case the role of the office of the Public Prosecutor is exercised by the Auditorat Militaire (office of the Chief Military Prosecutor) (arts. 198-201 of the Code de Justice militaire). Apart from SARM, the armed forces have their own military police, but since the Gendarmerie Nationale is part of the armed forces, persons belonging to the military can also be arrested by the Gendarmerie. 21. All law enforcement agencies have their own places of detention generally referred to as cachots. In the case of common crimes, the suspect is usually referred to a general prison after a relatively short period and kept there awaiting trial. In cases, however, where a person is suspected of having committed a crime against the security of the State or the armed forces, he may be kept for a considerable time in the cachot of the competent agency pending the completion of the inquiry in view of the sensitive character of the matter. In highly delicate cases, contacts with a lawyer are only permitted after the inquiry is finished, although the lawyer can discuss the case with the agency itself. 22. The activities of the various security agencies are co-ordinated within the Conseil National de Securite (CNS), a body which is responsible to the recently established (1989) Commissariat d'Etat a la Securite du Territoire et aux Anciens Combattants (Department of Internal Security). 23. The judicial system is co-ordinated by the Conseil Judiciaire, in which the judiciary as well as the Office of the Public Prosecutor and the Chief Military Prosecutor are represented. Its President has a function which is comparable to that of Minister of Justice. 24. Under the authority of the Conseil Judiciaire, all places of detention and prisons have to be visited every fortnight by magistrates of the Office of the Public Prosecutor. Persons who are found to be irregularly detained have to be released immediately. 25. When the investigation is finalized, the suspect is brought to trial. If he is charged with a crime against the security of the State, he will be tried by the Cour de Surete de l'Etat (Court of National Security). While according to the law no appeal is possible from the decisions of this court, the Special Rapporteur was informed that a person convicted by the Cour de Surete de l'Etat may go into cassation of a sentence with the Supreme Court on the grounds of violation of the law. 26. Although the legal rules are clear and in general must be deemed to be in conformity with international standards, in actual practice they were not complied with. The fact that there were many allegations of illegal and arbitrary arrests, torture and serious maltreatment (which in some cases were found to be correct, leading, inter aliaT to the disbanding of the military intelligence agency) led the authorities to decide to establish the Department of Rights and Freedoms of the Citizen (Departement des Droits et Libertes du Citoyen - DDLC). The Department, created by ordinance 86/268 of 31 October 1986, started its work in the course of 1987. According to the Head of the Department, Vice-Premier Commissaire d'Etat Maitre Nimy Mayidika Ngimbi, DDLC's functions are threefold: informing citizens about their rights; orienting and guiding citizens as to how to deal with the various