E/CN.A/1990/17 page 73 limit, it seems of the utmost importance to strengthen the compliance with the constitutional provisions on arrest and detention. In order to enable the competent authorities to enforce more effectively compliance with these provisions, their position should be strengthened. The judiciary should be in a position not only to take up effectively habeas corpus procedure in order to establish the whereabouts of a person who has temporarily disappeared but also to carry out investigations to determine whether allegations of illegal detention and/or torture are well-founded. It seems, however, that the organs which have to carry out a judicial order to start an investigation, or can do so ex officio, are diffuse and that their various competences are not well defined. The Supreme Court has it own prosecutor's office, whereas the Prosecutor Division of the Office of the Attorney-General seems to be understaffed and hardly capable of carrying out its task efficiently. In a speech made recently by the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, the incumbent official stated that his function, in practice, waB no more than that of a technical agent, an advisor to the judge or magistrate. He complained that during his professional career he had not known of even one case in which the prosecutor's office had been in a position to actually bring a case to court. 247. The establishment of a strong and independent prosecutor's office (fiscalia) within the Office of the Attorney-General, through the appointment by Congress of an official with a well-defined responsibility for the carrying out of criminal investigations and the recognized competence to bring cases to court, could considerably strengthen the guarantees for the respect for human rights. The Special Rapporteur was informed that a merger of the two offices was envisaged on the basis of a study prepared by the United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Criminals (ILANUD). An even more important shortcoming, however, is that the competent organs do not dispose of a police force which is solely responsible to these organs. The Special Rapporteur feels that, in general, the police should be separate from the armed forces and should be subordinated to either the Ministry of Justice or the Ministry of the Interior. Since the police has as its main task the maintenance of public order, it should be in principle a civilian institution. This is even more important when invstigations have to be carried out on the instruction of the civilian authorities. As long as the police have not been placed under the civilian authorities, b.ut continue to be a part of the armed forces, it seems appropriate to establish a judicial police which will be accountable solely to the civilian authorities. 248. It should be stressed that the idea of establishing a judicial police force was suggested by various authorities. When asked about his position in that respect, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces replied that he was in total agreement with it, although he feared that it would not be feasible in the near future for financial reasons. Nor did he reject the idea of placing the police in general again under the Ministry of the Interior if the President should decide so. He would actually welcome such a measure since under the present circumstances any violation committed by the police was imputed to the army. 249. Whenever an investigation has led to the preliminary conclusion that an illegal arrest had been made, that persons were kept in illegal detention or that detained persons had been tortured, steps should be taken immediately to bring to trial the officials who have abused their authority. The Special Rapporteur strongly feels that if such an abuse of authority has been committed with regard to a civilian, the civilian courts should have