best relations possible between staff and prisoners. In 2002 only two instances of excessive use of force were reported. The first incident concerned a mentally ill prisoner who had been beaten by a prison guard for refusing to leave his cell. The second concerned a prisoner who physically attacked a witness in court; force was used to subdue the prisoner when he had already begun to retreat. The guards involved in these two cases were punished by paying them only half of their salaries for three months. Had those acts resulted in serious injuries to the prisoners, the incidents would have been treated as assaults, i.e. as criminal cases. 205.The Director further explained that all prisoners were examined by a doctor upon their arrival in prison. Any injuries were noted. The medical reports were made available to the prisoner’s lawyer, his or her family, the Minister of the Interior and the investigating judge. Furthermore, the doctor on duty told the Committee members that about five years earlier detainees complained frequently of having been tortured or ill-treated by the police when they arrived in prison and that there had been some serious cases. Since then the situation had changed a great deal, although there were still detainees who reported having been beaten and who had slight injuries. The members of the Committee looked at the medical records of the inmates who had arrived since January 2002. There were 167 men and 8 women, of whom 39 men had alleged having been beaten, 24 had injuries that had been described by the doctors as “not serious” and 3 had “serious” injuries. 206.While in Spuž the Committee members interviewed three prisoners. One of them, recently arrived, claimed that the police had beaten him in front of his family in Berhane. According to his medical report he had three fractured ribs. The second interviewee, who had been convicted of drug trafficking, stated that when he was arrested in 1998 he was held in custody for three days before being brought before a judge. He alleged that during those three days he had been beaten and threatened with a pistol shoved into his mouth in order to get him to provide information about drug dealers operating in Montenegro. Before being brought before a judge he did not have access to a lawyer. The third interviewee had been arrested some three days prior to the Committee’s visit to Spuž, at the Yugoslav-Hungarian border, for attempted robbery and for shooting and wounding two petrol station attendants. He claimed that for about one day he was deprived of food and water, was not allowed to go to the toilet and was kept with his hands tied very tightly behind his back. 207.While in Montenegro the Committee members also visited the police station in Danilovgrad, where there were no detainees at the time. They also visited the central police station in Podgorica where there was one detainee who had just been arrested. Although the members insisted on interviewing him in private, they were not allowed to do so for reasons that were not clear. 208.The situation in Montenegro regarding the right to file complaints and to have one’s complaint examined does not seem to differ much from that in Serbia. Victims who file complaints very often find themselves being prosecuted for obstructing a law enforcement officer in the performance of his duty, and investigating judges do not inform prosecutors of allegations of torture or ill-treatment made by detainees. The Montenegrin authorities still do not recognize the applicability of the new Federal Code of Criminal Procedure in the Republic and continue to apply the 1976 Code, under which a person arrested by the police has to be presented before an investigating judge within 24 hours after his arrest. However, in certain cases article 196 permits detained persons to be kept in custody for 72 hours before having access to a lawyer and before being brought before an investigating judge. Furthermore, torture is not defined in the Criminal Code of Montenegro, which contains similar provisions to those laid down in articles 65 and 66 of the Serbian Criminal Code. 209.The government officials with whom the Committee members met expressed their commitment to the protection of human rights and explained some of the initiatives the Government of Montenegro was taking in this field, such as the drafting of a law to establish an ombudsman, the measures to improve the functioning of the criminal justice system and the reform of the police. They also expressed their willingness to cooperate with international organizations. The Deputy Minister of the Interior said that hotlines had been established and the telephone numbers regularly published in the daily newspaper so as to enable every citizen to call and complain about abuse of authority by officials. In addition, training programmes on human rights for the police force were being developed. In 2001 his Ministry had received nine complaints of torture, which resulted in disciplinary proceedings and the dismissal of 18 officers. 210With respect to criminal proceedings, the Public Prosecutor of Montenegro said that although by law prosecutors could initiate proceedings ex officio, this possibility was used only in exceptional circumstances. He also said that his Office was promoting a reform that would allow public prosecutors to supervise and direct investigations conducted by the police. V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE 211.Since the beginning of the inquiry the Committee examined a great deal of information from reliable sources concerning the use of torture in Serbia and Montenegro prior to October 2000. That information was corroborated by testimony received by the three Committee members who visited the country from victims, witnesses and government officials. On the basis of that information the Committee concluded that torture had been systematically practised in Serbia prior to October 2000. Furthermore, the Committee noted with dismay that, despite the gravity of the cases, no significant steps were being taken to investigate them, punish those responsible and compensate the victims. The Committee nevertheless welcomed the establishment of the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation with a mandate to encourage and organize research on human rights abuses and breaches of international and humanitarian law and the law of war that took place in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, with a view to establishing the truth and contributing to general reconciliation within Serbia and Montenegro and with neighbouring countries. It noted that the Commission intended to collect as much testimony as possible and to establish a list of victims, but not necessarily a list of perpetrators, since it did not have judicial powers to deal with them. 212.In contrast with the situation prevailing in the country prior to October 2000, the Committee observed that, under the new political regime, the incidence of torture appeared to have dropped considerably and torture was no longer systematic. Nonetheless, it was clear that cases of torture continued to occur, particularly in police stations, and that reforms of the police and the judiciary had yet to demonstrate their full effectiveness in preventing and punishing the practice. In order to put an end to an apparent culture of impunity, senior police officers, judges and prosecutors who seemed to adopt a reactive approach to the problem of torture must