A/HRC/13/42* page 101 supported by the Government, was also reported to be responsible for abductions of LTTE representatives and civilians in the area around Trincomalee.391 198. In its concluding observations on Sri Lanka, the Human Rights Committee expressed its regret regarding impunity for abductions and secret detentions. The Committee stated that the majority of prosecutions initiated against police officers or members of the armed forces on charges of abduction and unlawful confinement, as well as on charges of torture, had been inconclusive owing to a lack of satisfactory evidence and the unavailability of witnesses, despite a number of acknowledged instances of abduction and/or unlawful confinement and/or torture, and only very few police or army officers had been found guilty and punished.392 The Committee also noted with concern reports that victims of human rights violations felt intimidated about bringing complaints or had been subjected to intimidation and/or threats, which discouraged them from pursuing appropriate avenues to obtain an effective remedy. 199. While the conduct of the security forces in “white van” abduction cases is most likely unlawful and criminal also under the law of Sri Lanka, the Special Rapporteur on torture393 and the International Commission of Jurists have drawn attention to the far-reaching powers of arrest and detention that anti-terrorism laws and ordinances bestow upon the Sri Lankan security forces.394 Under Emergency (Miscellaneous Provisions and Powers) Regulation No. 1 of 2005, persons “acting in any manner prejudicial to the national security or the maintenance of public order” may be arrested and held in detention for up to one year, without access to judicial review by an independent body. Persons may be similarly detained for up to 18 months under the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act of 1979 or indefinitely, pending trial. Persons can be held in irregular and unpublicized places of detention, outside of a regular police station, recognized detention centre, penal institution or prison. Detainees may be moved from place to place during interrogation and denied prompt access to a lawyer, family members or authority competent to challenge the legitimacy of detention.395 Section 15(A)(1) of the act, for instance, enables the Secretary to the Minister for Defence to order that persons held on remand should be “kept in the custody of any authority, in such place and subject to such conditions as may be determined by him”.395 As a result of his visit to Sri Lanka in November 2007, the Special Rapporteur on torture concluded that torture had become a routine practice in the context of counter-terrorism operations, both by the police and the armed forces.396 391 A/HRC/7/3/Add.6, paras. 12 and 16. 392 CCPR/CO/79/LKA, para. 9. 393 A/HRC/7/3/Add.6, paras. 41-48. 394 International Commission of Jurists, Briefing Paper: Sri Lanka’s Emergency Laws, March 2009, available from www.icj.org//IMG/SriLanka-BriefingPaper-Mar09-FINAL.pdf. 395 Ibid., pp. 17-18. 396 A/HRC/7/3/Add.6, para. 70.