E/CN.4/1998/38 page 20 92. The Government replied to 14 cases, some of them collective, involving 99 individuals, all transmitted in previous years. Observations 93. The Special Rapporteur again expresses his appreciation for the substantial efforts the Government has undertaken in order to respond to the numerous allegations he has transmitted. He notes that in no case has a police or security official been convicted and sentenced for torture. He detects a willingness of the agencies of the administration of justice to place too heavy a burden on the alleged victims pursuing their investigations, thus implying a great willingness to close cases. The few cases of disciplinary action, involving reduction of salary or transfer to another police station, hardly suggest a serious commitment of the institution to redress grave abuses of prisoners. His concerns as addressed last year have not abated (E/CN.4/1997/7, para. 73). Preliminary contacts with the Permanent Mission encourage him to hope that the Government will respond positively to his request for an invitation to visit the country in the coming year. Equatorial Guinea 94. The Special Rapporteur sent the Government four urgent appeals, to one of which the Government replied. Observations 95. The Special Rapporteur notes that the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Equatorial Guinea observed in his last report “that cases of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners continue to occur, although the number of complaints received is considerably lower than in previous years” and that the “impunity of the perpetrators of human rights violations is continuing” (E/CN.4/1997/54, paras. 40 and 44). Ethiopia 96. The Special Rapporteur transmitted to the Government eight individual cases, one of which had also been the object of an urgent appeal. In addition, he submitted four other urgent appeals, one on behalf of a group of some 200 individuals and three on behalf of some 20 members of the Oromo ethnic group. The Government replied to the appeal concerning the group of 200 individuals, to two appeals on the Oromo members and to another urgent appeal on behalf of a large number of persons which had been transmitted in 1996 in conjunction with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. Observations 97. The consistency of allegations of torture, particularly as regards persons in the hands of the army and suspected of involvement with the Oromo Liberation Front,is a matter of concern to the Special Rapporteur. A thorough inquiry into the detention and interrogation practices of the army in its