Jakarta – Rights groups demanded Thursday the government provide full access to a UN special rapporteur on torture and cruelty slated to begin a visit this weekend.

The United Nations special rapporteur on torture and cruelty, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment, Manfred Nowak, is scheduled to visit Indonesia from Nov. 10 to 23 at the invitation of the government.

"We hope Nowak is given a chance to gather information and to visit all the places necessary in order to verify the allegations of torture in several places across the nation," Rafendi Djamin, representative of the Working Group Against Torture, told a press conference.

He said the government would benefit from the visit because it gave the country the chance to demonstrate its commitment to improving law enforcement and eliminating all forms of torture, particularly during police questioning and in prisons.

He cited a survey recently conducted by the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute with 639 respondents from two jails and one penitentiary in the capital.

The study found 74.4 percent of inmates interviewed claimed they had been tortured by police officers during investigations, while another 4.5 percent said they had been tortured by prison guards. Some 5.9 percent of respondents said they had been tortured by fellow inmates.

Another group member, Poengky Indarti, said if the government failed to provide access for Nowak, it would harm the country's image and its position on the United Nation Commission for Human Rights, which Indonesia has been a member of for nearly three years. "The harm to our image could mean decreasing international support for Indonesia," she said.

She said the group would submit reports on suspected torture activities to Nowak as an alternative to government reports.

One of the group's concerns is the need to improve the country's laws, particularly the 2004 Terrorism Law, which allows police to question a terror suspect for seven days without the presence of a defense lawyer.

Indonesia has recently received numerous UN envoys on human rights issues, including United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louis Arbor and the special representative of the United Nations secretary-general on the situation of human rights defenders, Hina Jilani.

The envoys will submit their reports at the UN Human Rights Commission plenary meeting, to be held in May. (dic)