E/CN.4/1991/17 page 6 II. ACTIVITIES OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR A. Urgent action 19. During the period covered by the present report, the Special Rapporteur continued to receive increasing numbers of requests for urgent action or information containing elements which, he deemed, justified such urgent action. These requests principally concerned persons who were allegedly being subjected to torture, or regarding whom fears were expressed that they may be subjected to torture, usually while being held incommunicado in police or army custody, or during interrogation. The Special Rapporteur brought 70 of these cases to the immediate attention of the respective Governments and appealed to them, on a purely humanitarian basis, to ensure that the right to physical and mental integrity of those concerned was protected and that the treatment meted out to them while in detention was humane. 20. Appeals were sent to the following Governments: Burkina Faso, Chad, China, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia, Iraq, Islamic Republic of Iran, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mauritania, Myanmar, Peru, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey and Zaire. 21. The following Governments replied to the appeals for urgent action addressed to them by the Special Rapporteur (including appeals sent previously and reflected in previous reports of the Special Rapporteur): Burkina Faso, China, Colombia, Congo, Cuba, Ecuador, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Mauritania, Myanmar, Syrian Arab Republic and Turkey. 22. It may be noted that, in a small number of cases, the Special Rapporteur was informed by the source of information that the person, or persons, regarding whom a request for urgent action was made had already been released at the time the appeal on their behalf was sent to the Government. In such cases the appeals may be considered as null and void and will not be mentioned in the present report. 23. Further details on the contents of the appeals and of Government replies thereto received by 7 December 1990 are given in section B below, entitled "Correspondence with Governments". B. Correspondence with Governments Bahrain 24. On 28 December 1989 the Government of Bahrain sent the following information to the Special Rapporteur in reply to his letter of 21 April 1989 (E/CN.4/1990/17, para. 27): "Mr. Ebrahim Bahman Dashti was involved in anti-Government activities calling for violence and use of arms, in collaboration with a banned extremist group linked to foreign quarters. Furthermore, he exercised his right to appoint a lawyer of his choice to defend him in his trial which was not only open but also in accordance with the legal norms and procedure. His allegation about torture being perpetrated against him was flatly refuted after a thorough medical check-up and investigation."