E/CN.4/2000/9 page 50 time they were allegedly denied food, sleep and to go to the toilet. From 10 to 14 September, they were reportedly individually handcuffed in the back in such a position that they were unable to lie down in order to sleep. 222. Concerning the situation in Tibet, the Special Rapporteur has received information on the following individual cases. 223. Ngawang Kyonmed, who was taking care of a shrine in the Drepung complex in Tibet, and Samdrul, both monks, were reportedly arrested in September 1998 on suspicion of having prepared a letter addressed to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, during her visit to Tibet in September 1998. The letter is believed to express concern about the detention of the Panchen Lama, Gendun Choekyi Nyima, as well as details of the May 1998 protests at Drapchi prison which were mentioned in a communication by the Special Rapporteur dated 3 September 1998 (see E/CN.4/1999/61, para. 116). Ngawang Kyonmed was allegedly beaten severely and detained at the Gutsa detention centre in Lhasa. He were reportedly transferred to a prison. An urgent appeal was sent on their behalf on 13 January 1999 by the Chairman-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. 224. Norbu, a 17-year-old monk from Nalanda monastery, was reportedly arrested along with three fellow monks on 25 February 1995, following a police raid on the monastery. He is said to have resisted the police who wanted to search fellow monks' rooms. He was reportedly taken to Phenpo County Public Security Bureau detention centre. He was reportedly transferred on 28 February 1995 to Gutsa detention centre in Lhasa city, where he spent almost a year in incommunicado detention. He was allegedly brutally interrogated by the prison guards and accused of hiding documents on Tibet's independence. He was then denied medical treatment, despite the fact that his health was constantly deteriorating during his detention. In particular, he is said to have sustained damage to his kidneys. When he was returned home, in February 1996, he was still in a very serious condition. He allegedly could not turn his head or bend one of his legs and could not speak properly anymore. He is said to have died at home in March 1999 from injuries sustained at the time of his arrest and interrogation. 225. Tashi Tsering reportedly died in the first week of October 1999, while still hospitalized, allegedly due to the beatings he sustained at the time of his arrest. Security police officers of the People's Armed Police (PAP) reportedly beat him so badly that his hands and feet may have been broken and his arm fractured. His head was struck against the back of a vehicle and by the time he was dragged into the police van by security personnel he was unable to walk. It is thought that his head injuries contributed to his subsequent death in the Tibetan Autonomous Region police hospital, near Sera Monastery, where he had been immediately rushed. He is said to have been arrested soon after having lowered the Chinese flag in Potala Square and attempted to hoist the forbidden Tibetan national flag during the Minority Games, held in Lhasa, on 26 August 1999. Urgent appeals and replies received 226. On 17 February 1999, the Special Rapporteur sent a joint urgent appeal in conjunction with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression on behalf of Hemit Memet, Kasim