A/HRC/13/42* page 37 4. Secret detention in Asia 79. In Cambodia, secret detention facilities were used by the Communist Party of Kampuchea during the Khmer Rouge Regime both to persecute political opposition and to intimidate the civilian population. While those individuals who were sent to Tuol Sleng prison (S-21) were regarded as established “enemies” of the Party, those sent to the so-called re-education camp (S-24) were considered to be “elements”, because it was unclear whether they were enemies or friends.123 The S-24 facility was used primarily for the purposes of forced labour. The Government of Cambodia denies the occurrence of secret detention after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. However, in the 1990s, reports were made regarding the involvement of senior regional and provincial military officers and their units in the continuing use of secret detention facilities in Battambang province for the purposes of detaining abducted civilians, extorting money, asserting illegal power and executing those detained.124 80. In India, no fewer than 1 million people were detained under preventive detention laws during the 1975/77 state of emergency. Many were alleged to be held in secret places of detention, for instance in Punjab. Others were abducted and made to disappear by members of the police and State security forces, especially in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, as well as in the North-eastern states.125 Most of them were legally precluded from an enforceable right to compensation for unlawful detention. While the Constitution, the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code prohibited secret detention and stipulated prompt access to a judicial authority, relatives, lawyers and medical assistance, such guarantees were not included in other relevant laws, such as the Terrorism and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, which was in force in the States of Jammu, Kashmir and Punjab. According to a number of allegations, in the State of Jammu and Kashmir, arrests were often not recorded by, or even reported to, the local police so that legal remedies, including applications for habeas corpus, were ineffective.126 In the late 1990s, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances received consistent allegations according to which more than 2,000 people were being held in long-term unacknowledged detention in interrogation centres and transit camps in the north-east of the country and in Jammu and Kashmir.127 123 Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Trial Proceedings, transcript of trial proceedings, Kaing Guek Eav “Duch” Public, case file Nº 001/18-07-2007-ECCC/TC. 124 Recommendations of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for human rights in Cambodia and the role of the United Nations Centre for Human Rights in assisting the Government and people of Cambodia in the promotion and protection of human rights (A/49/635), para. 24. In the same report, reference is made to the case of Voat Cheu Kmau. 125 See the official Shah Commission of Inquiry report of 1978. See the summary record of the second part (public) of the 11th meeting of the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, forty-fifth session (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/SR.11/Add.1), para. 28. 126 127 E/CN.4/200/64.

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