E/CN.4/1993/26 page 19 60. According to information received, 20 persons suspected of being members of the Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People (PALIPEHUTU) were held at the headquarters of the police special intelligence branch. They were detained in a cell 5 metres by 4. Their hands were kept tied. They had fractured bones and open wounds and do not appear to have received any medical treatment. 61. The Special Rapporteur has also been informed that even before the November incidents suspected members of PALIPEHUTU were commonly tortured in gendarmeries and public security police detention centres. The method of torture most frequently employed involved binding the arms of detainees very tightly so that the shoulders were brought close together behind the back and the rope cut into the flesh. Victims of this treatment are reported to have contracted gangrene or suffered paralysis of the arms. In addition detainees are often wounded with bayonets, beaten, particularly on the soles of the feet, and forced to kneel on bottles or pebbles for hours at a time. Cameroon Information transmitted to the Government and replies received thereon 62. In a letter dated 21 August 1992 the Special Rapporteur advised the Government that he had received information that a series of special laws, most recently revised in late 1990, had empowered senior government officials to detain people for long periods, sometimes indefinitely, without indictment or trial. Cases of torture had occurred during these periods of detention. It was becoming increasingly common for opponents of the regime or critics of the Government to be detained for short periods without trial. During detention they were subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. This typically took the form of beating on the soles of the feet and the application of electric shocks. There has never been an official inquiry into the alleged use of torture. The following cases have been reported: (a) Anicet Ekané and Henriette Ekwé were unlawfully held in solitary confinement for several weeks in February 1990 and subjected to torture and ill-treatment during interrogation. Anicet Ekané was stripped, beaten and forced to remain on her feet without food or water for several days. Henriette Ekwé was also denied food for three days when she was interrogated by the police; (b) Jean-Jaques Ekindi, a former government supporter resigned from the ruling party, the Democratic Rally of the Cameroonian People, in May 1991 and formed the Progressive Movement. On 23 September 1991 he was arrested while trying to organize a political rally in Douala. He was held for less than 24 hours but is reported to have been tortured while in police custody and had to be taken to hospital after he was released without any charges against him. His wife and mother were also subjected to violence by the security forces but were not arrested; (c) Samuel Eboua of the National Union for Democracy and Progress and Charles Tchougang of the Cameroonian Human Rights Organization and 15 important members and leaders of recently constituted opposition groups