E/CN.4/1996/35/Add.1 page 108 court was said to have been inconclusive. However, investigators reportedly failed to interview a detainee who witnessed the beating and a petition submitted to the Russian Commission on Human Rights went unanswered. 574. In a subsequent letter, dated 12 December 1995, the Special Rapporteur informed the Governments of reports he had received indicating that Arutyunyan Artyom and Karapetyan Karen had been detained by members of the District Anti-Crime Department of the North-West district of Moscow, after they had arrived at the office of a business firm for a meeting to collect a debt. They were said to have been falsely accused of blackmail and extortion. They were transferred to the Central Anti-Crime Department and reportedly beaten for about two hours. Arutyunyan Artyom was allegedly hung by the handcuffs from the ceiling and beaten on his chest, which resulted in the breaking of five of his ribs. He was taken to hospital on 21 November and on 24 November was transferred to a temporary detention centre (IVS) of the 157 police station, before being released on 30 November. Karapetyan Karen was reported to be held at the IVS, in a state of ill-health. Urgent appeals transmitted and replies received 575. On 3 February 1995 the Special Rapporteur sent an urgent appeal concerning allegations that Russian forces had severely beaten and otherwise ill-treated people during the conflict in the Chechen Republic. One report indicated that a group of persons arrested in Grozny and taken on 9 January 1995 to the Russian military base in Mozdok had been clubbed and sat on by guards when they moved. It was also alleged that prisoners had suffocated during transport due to overcrowding, that prisoners had received little food or water and that they had been beaten during interrogations. 576. On 5 May 1995 the Special Rapporteur, in conjunction with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary execution, transmitted another appeal concerning the situation in the Chechen Republic. Information had been received alleging widespread abuses against the civilian population during the course of military operations. Between 100 and 300 civilian inhabitants of Samashki were said to have been killed during the course of a raid on the village by Russian soldiers beginning on 7 April 1995. Several hundred homes were reportedly destroyed and approximately half of the population of 15,000 were displaced, having fled to neighbouring villages. Some of the persons killed were allegedly summarily executed by soldiers after having been ordered to leave their houses. Other civilians were reportedly detained in camps in Assinovskaya and Mozdok. At the Assinovskaya camp, detainees were allegedly tortured or ill-treated, including by means of severe beatings and attacks by trained dogs. 577. On 15 August 1995 the Government replied that a combined detachment of 300 troops from the Interior Ministry forces and the Moscow and Moscow region militia special forces units were dispatched to Samashki on 6 April and, after negotiations had failed, the troops moved towards the village with no intention of entering homes. They came under heavy fire and thus were obliged to conduct defensive action at close quarters, during which homes were destroyed by the use of anti-grenade rocket launchers and mortar bombardment by fighters from the forest. Testimony by numerous witnesses did not confirm allegations of punitive action by the troops. Acting on the findings of an