E/CN.4/1999/61/Add.1 page 27 IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 99. The Special Rapporteur expresses his appreciation to the Government of Turkey for the invitation to visit the country and to the ministers, senior judges and many public officials he met for their cooperation in facilitating the mission and providing him with the extensive information, which this report reflects to the extent possible, given the restrictions on the length of documents imposed by the United Nations. Much more time and travel within the country would also have been desirable for a more complete assessment of the situation. He also appreciates the cooperation of various non-governmental organizations, including professional bodies of lawyers and doctors, as well as human rights organizations, often working under difficult conditions. Many of his interlocutors, official and non-governmental, provided him with information on the situation in parts of the country he was unable to visit. 100. Turkey, a country bordered by seven States in a politically unstable region, is not immune from the turbulent political and religious forces prevalent in the region. The western part of the country is relatively developed, but there is much room for further development, especially in the south-east. In that predominantly Kurdish area, long-standing grievances, involving neglect, discrimination and cultural and social repression, promoted substantial support for secessionist and autonomist views, spawning the establishment of the “Kurdistan Workers' Party” (PKK), which, in 1984, launched a violent and ruthless campaign of opposition to central government authority, including the reported killing in Turkey and abroad of civilians considered hostile to the organization's objectives. Such acts of terrorism have been widely and rightly condemned. Even before the dramatic arrest of the leader of the PKK in Italy during the Special Rapporteur's visit, senior government officials were indicating that they had made substantial inroads into PKK ability to carry out its armed strategy and that an end to the emergency was in sight. Turkey also faces a significant drug trafficking problem and the related phenomenon of organized crime. 101. Accordingly, the police and other security forces have to work under very difficult circumstances, often with recalcitrant detainees, creating acute challenges to professional discipline. However, none of the Special Rapporteur's interlocutors suggested that the country's crime problems could be legitimately combated by the use of torture or ill-treatment, which are crimes under Turkish, as well as international, law. 102. As to the incidence of torture and similar ill-treatment, there was a wide disparity of views among those whom the Special Rapporteur met. Numerous non-governmental sources insisted that the situation had not improved at all. For them, torture was widespread and systematic, any recent changes in the law being merely “cosmetic”. In this connection, the Special Rapporteur notes that the word “systematic” in this context was used in at least three meanings: first, to indicate that the practice was approved of and tolerated, if not expected, at the highest political level; second, in the sense that it was a pervasive technique of law enforcement agencies for the purpose of investigation, securing confessions and intimidation, regardless of approval or disapproval at the higher levels of the public service or by the