Indeed, Jose Miguel Vivanco, director of Human Rights Watch-Americas, says he has evidence in contradiction of what the army says showing that, in some of Colombia's most violent areas, military units directly promote or support paramilitary activity.

ECONOMIST: Colombia��s drug-bedevilled hopes of peace

Another respectable human-rights monitoring group, Helsinki Watch, says that giving electric shocks to prisoners' genitals, beating the soles of their feet, sexual abuse, putting prisoners on blocks of ice and hanging them by the arms, are all methods still used.

ECONOMIST: Human rights in Turkey

Referring to a report compiled by human rights group, British Irish Rights Watch, had been handed into the government more than a year ago he said it had still not elicited "the kind of detailed response which all concerned are entitled to expect".

BBC: Commission support for murder inquiry