A/HRC/16/52/Add.5 Boroko Police Station, Port Moresby Visited on 16 May 2010 General information This was the biggest police lock-up of Papua New Guinea. There were 58 inmates including seven women and four juveniles at the time of the visit. Upon the arrival of the Special Rapporteur, there was no guard, and the door of the lock-up was open. Inside, the door of the women’s cell was also open, and anybody could enter and leave without any control. At a certain point the officer in charge for the night-shift arrived (not in uniform) and allowed the Special Rapporteur to enter the men cells. The male block was locked, but detainees were all in the corridor. There are roughly five or six cells on each side of the corridor and the cells are fairly large and clean, although the detainees had to sleep on the concrete floor and only some had cartons to sleep on. Each cell had a toilet in a corner but no privacy. The toilet is broken in one cell. On the right side of the corridor, there was a shower but the sewage system did not function properly and the water was stuck. The wounded detainees were held in unhygienic conditions and without access to proper medical treatment and they all had to drink water from the toilet. One detainee had cholera and was sent somewhere else. Detainees received very little food, with two biscuit and tea in the morning, nothing for lunch, and tinned fish and white rice for dinner, although sometimes they did not receive anything. Visitors could talk to the detainees through the gate. More than four juveniles were held with the general population: a 13-years-old (held for 1 month), a16-years-old (held for 2 months), a 14-years-old (held for 4 months), a 17-yearsold and a 15 years-old (had arrived the day before). The lock-up reserved for the juveniles, and which had been built in cooperation with UNICEF some months prior was out of use for alleged security reasons. The register was poorly kept, and a CID officer who arrived during the visit agreed that some detainees were never registered unless their relatives insisted. He stated that courts had recently started rejecting forced confessions, forcing officers to investigate properly. He had come that morning to talk to the three detainees he had arrested but could not find them because they had been released on bail without his consent. He explained that bribery in the courts was a common practice, and that detainees could be released by paying the officers. The “snake bail”, also common, happened when a detainee’s bail was granted but at the time of the release, another detainee walked out. These practices set the morale of the arresting officers very low and create enormous frustration. The CID officer further explained that since some detainees were bailed or just released, despite the fact they faced other charges, out of frustration CID officers would rather kill them when they found them in the streets. He acknowledged that there should have been 6 to 7 officers present at the time of the visit, instead of the two who arrived much later. These officers wore civilian clothes and since some detainees were also out in the main entrance of the lock-up, it was impossible to distinguish them. During the debriefing with Mathew Pyakali, officer in charge, and Sergeant Gilbert Abore, they noted a lack of resources as the main explanation for the poor conditions the detainees were held in. Individual cases Female division A female detainee, aged approximately 30, was arrested on 15 December 2009 by Joseph Paul, First Constable, in East Boroko. She was threatened with arms, insulted, and forced 25