E/CN.4/1994/31 page 52 238. By the same letter the Special Rapporteur thanked the Government for the reply provided on the case of Juan Pablo Lemus Silva (still under investigation), transmitted in August 1992 and reminded it of a number of cases brought to its attention in 1992 regarding which no reply had been received. Urgent appeals 239. The Special Rapporteur sent an urgent appeal to the Government on 22 July 1993 concerning Tomás Pérez Pérez, a member of the Peasants’ Unity Committee, who was allegedly detained on 9 July 1993 in Chontalá, Santo Tomás de Chichicastenango municipality, El Quiché department, by members of the national police together with armed men in plain clothes. According to the information received, Tomás Pérez Pérez was severely beaten during interrogation to obtain information on a number of brochures found in his house concerning Rigoberta Menchú, and the purpose of the exhumation, in 1991, of the bodies of 27 Indians buried in clandestine graves in Chontalá. Information submitted by the Government in connection with Commission resolution 1993/48 240. In a note verbale dated 19 November 1993 the Government stated that the internal armed conflict had caused, over the years, thousands of deaths, disappearances, refugees and displaced persons, as well as unjustified destruction of basic infrastructure and diversion of resources. It also stated that the guerrilla groups operating in the country had committed grave human rights violations in breach of domestic law and the international covenants, as well as a number of aggressions against the civilian population not participating in the conflict. The Government also referred to a number of measures taken to combat drug trafficking. It pointed out, however, that the activities carried out by drug traffickers could not be considered as terrorism, since they were not aimed systematically against the State. Haiti Information transmitted to the de facto Government 241. By letter dated 8 November 1993 the Special Rapporteur informed the de facto Government that he had received reports of torture and ill-treatment of civilians by the military, chefs de section and civilians working with them. Severe beatings were said to be practically automatic when an arrest took place and were daily occurrences in detention centres run by the military or the police. Beatings are also reported in the streets, either during demonstrations or when the security forces made incursions into a particular neighbourhood in Port-au-Prince or in the main cities. In these cases even women and children were severely beaten. It was also alleged that the Port-au-Prince police went to the places where the street children slept at night, usually around the city’s cemetery, and beat them so that they moved to a less conspicuous place. The individual cases referred to in the following paragraphs were also transmitted.