E/CN.4/2000/9 page 31 133. The Government replied on 27 April 1999 that Viktor Gonchar had been placed in administrative detention for 10 days in a special holding facility, pursuant to the Administrative Offences Code, after attending a gathering on 25 February 1999 for which no authorization had been issued by the Minsk City Executive Committee. With respect to his time in detention, the Government stated that he was kept under constant medical supervision on account of his health. The Government informed the Special Rapporteur that any reports of police irregularities had no basis in fact. Brazil Regular communications and replies received 134. By letter dated 17 November 1999, the Special Rapporteur advised the Government that he continued to receive information concerning cases of brutality in prisons. Based on a recent report on the situation in Brazilian prisons, it was alleged that even though internal legislation might provide adequate provisions to safeguard detainees' human rights, a combination of corruption, lack of professional training for prison guards, and lack of official guidelines and effective monitoring of abuses, had prompted an on-going crisis in the penitentiary system. 135. Prisoner-on-prisoner violence is reported to be a serious problem. Prisoners are said to be at risk for a number of reasons, including drug-related prison debts, gang rivalries and the types of crimes prisoners committed. On 29 May 1998 a fight reportedly broke out between rival gangs of prisoners in the Barreto Campelo maximum security prison in Pernambuco, allegedly leaving 22 prisoners dead and 13 prisoners injured. Those targeted had allegedly committed homicide, robbery and rape in the prison. A similar incident two days earlier had left three prisoners dead and 20 injured. The State Secretary of Justice is said to have later blamed the violence on overcrowding and understaffing in prisons. 136. Torture is also said to be used as a punishment by prison officers. Prison officers allegedly apply illegal collective "punishments", most commonly by stripping, beating and humiliating prisoners, destroying or contaminating their food, denying them access to food, or terminating or restricting visits. 137. The Special Rapporteur has received information on the following cases. 138. On 24 December 1997 a fight reportedly occurred between prisoners in the Céu Azul wing of the men's penitentiary in Manaus and the kitchen "trustees", who had allegedly previously beaten prisoners with the acquiescence of the prison governor. The civil police riot squad, which was reportedly called in to end the disturbance, allegedly took the prisoners to the prison football pitch. After being stripped naked, they were allegedly forced to crawl through filth from a sewage outlet, while the prison officers beat them with truncheons and kicked them in the ribs. They allegedly had to shuffle on their knees back to the prison building. They were also allegedly beaten in the following months by police riot troops. It is alleged that prisoners were dragged out of their cells, stripped naked and forced to kneel down and beat each other, as well as being forced to insert fingers into a fellow prisoner's anus. 139. In February 1998, members of a civil police Special Armed Unit for the Prevention of Robbery reportedly entered Depatri prison in São Paolo and