CAT/C/LKA/CO/5 Alleged “white van” abductions and torture in unacknowledged detention facilities 11. The Committee expresses concern at credible reports indicating that the practice of so-called “white van” abductions of Tamils has continued in the years following the end of the armed conflict. The Committee notes allegations of this practice documented by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Investigation on Sri Lanka during the period 2002-2011 as well as by non-governmental organizations, which have identified 48 sites where torture allegedly occurred or which were used as transit points to torture locations between 2009 and 2015. The Committee notes the information received that numerous individuals suspected of having a link, however remote, with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have been abducted and then subjected to brutal torture, often including sexual violence and rape of men and women. According to the information received, such practices are carried out by both military and police in unacknowledged places of detention, which have included law enforcement headquarters, army and internally displaced person camps and “rehabilitation centres”. While noting the State party’s position that no secret torture camps or detention centres exist at present, the Committee regrets the failure of the State party to clarify whether it investigated these recent allegations of torture (arts. 2, 12, 13 and 16). 12. The Committee urges the State party to ensure that all allegations of unlawful detention, torture and sexual violence by security forces are promptly, impartially and effectively investigated by an independent body. The Committee urges the State party to publish a full list of all gazetted detention centres, close down any unofficial ones still in existence and ensure that no one is detained in unofficial detention facilities, as this practice is per se a breach of the Convention. Institutional reform of the security sector 13. Bearing in mind the findings of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka that the Sri Lankan security forces committed widespread or systematic torture, enforced disappearances and other serious human rights violations during and in the aftermath of the internal conflict, the Committee is seriously concerned at the failure of the State party to carry out an institutional reform of the security sector. In this regard, the Committee was alarmed by the presence of the Chief of National Intelligence, Sisira Mendis, as part of the Sri Lankan delegation, as he was the Deputy Inspector General of the Criminal Investigations Department from March 2008 to June 2009. The Committee observed that Mr. Mendis is named in the report of the Investigation, which noted that the Department’s “4th floor” facility at police headquarters in Colombo was known as a notorious site of torture. The report also contains allegations of widespread torture, including sexual violence, perpetrated against individuals detained at Manik Farm Camp and elsewhere in the aftermath of the conflict by personnel of the Department and the Terrorism Investigation Division, over which Mr. Mendis also allegedly exercised supervisory authority until June 2009. In this connection, the Committee deeply regrets that neither Mr. Mendis nor any other member of the delegation provided information in response to the many specific questions raised by the Committee on this subject during the dialogue with the State party and in its written additional information provided to the Committee. 14. The State party should: (a) Immediately embark upon an institutional reform of the security sector and develop a vetting process to remove from office military and security force personnel at the higher and lower ranks, as well as any other public official, where there are reasonable grounds to believe that they were involved in human rights violations, as recommended in the report of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka; 4