E/CN.A/1990/17 page 3 10. The Special Rapporteur extends his appreciation to all Governments which have provided him with comments on the allegations transmitted. A number of the replies received contained extensive information; others merely stated that the matter had been investigated and that the allegation was found to be baseless. The Special Rapporteur would appreciate it if he were informed on what basis such a conclusion had been drawn. When, for example, the Special Rapporteur is informed that a person, alleged to have died as a result of torture, died from another cause, without any further particulars, such information in itself cannot be considered as conclusive evidence that torture has not taken place. 11. The Special Rapporteur received invitations from three Governments to visit their country. He welcomes these invitations from the Governments of Guatemala, Honduras and Zaire since consultations with authorities and professional and other non-governmental organizations in the country itself are an excellent means of observing the situation and of making recommendations which are specifically geared to the needs of that particular country. In thiB context the Special Rapporteur wishes to express his deep appreciation to the Governments of the Republic of Korea and of Turkey for the way they have reacted to hi6 recommendations contained in last year's report. The Special Rapporteur feels that through this form of co-operation with individual Governments the prevention of torture is excellently served. 12. Reports on the visit to Guatemala and Honduras are contained in this report (chapter IV). Since the visit to Zaire is scheduled for the third week of January, the report on that visit will be published in an addendum to this report. 13. The Special Rapporteur again wishes to underline that an invitation extended to him by a Government should not be seen as an admission that torture is practised in the country concerned. Since the main purpose of such a visit is the prevention of torture in the future and since torture can happen in any society, this type of visit, which is of a consultative character, is mainly future-oriented. The Special Rapporteur can also be invited to visit a country to investigate alleged cases of torture, but up to now no invitations for such an investigatory visit have reached him. Ih. Sometimes the Special Rapporteur receives information about a certain regime or a certain technique which is practised in a country and which is said to cause effects that are tantamount to the effects of torture. In such cases the Special Rapporteur has found it more appropriate to try to have consultations with the Government concerned, rather than bringing such information to its attention in the usual way. In this context mention may be made of information received by the Special Rapporteur according to which the detention regime in the Federal Republic of Germany for prisoners who are serving sentences for having committed terrorist crimeE amounted to torture or inhuman treatment. It was alleged in particular that these detainees were kept in solitary confinement which could result in sensory deprivation. For this reason they had demanded to be detained collectively or in groups, a demand which they had tried to enforce by a hunger-strike. 15. On his request the Special Rapporteur has held consultations in Bonn with representatives of the Ministry of Justice. He was informed that the prisoners concerned (whose number is about 25) still constituted a danger for society and that for that reason special security measures, for example with