E/CN.4/1995/34 page 18 Pedra Furada, Eldorado do Carajás, in Pará. They were taken to the regional police station in Marabá where Francisco de Apsis Pinto do Nascimento, Salvador Murao de Souza and Estevão Alberto Rocha da Silva were allegedly beaten. Fears were expressed that all of the detainees might be subjected to torture or ill-treatment. 72. The Special Rapporteur also sent an urgent appeal on 2 December 1994 on behalf of Carlos Eduardo Rodrigues da Silva, Ismael Soares Rodrigues and Wanderlei Batista, who were detained in the favela Borel, Rio de Janeiro, taken to a parish church and allegedly tortured, including with electric shocks. The ill-treatment was said to have occurred between 25 and 28 November 1994, when more than 1,000 soldiers and police personnel reportedly occupied the area as part of an anti-drug operation. It was feared that other persons would be detained and similarly ill-treated during the operation. Observations 73. The Special Rapporteur acknowledges the limited time available to the Government of Brazil for response. Bulgaria Information transmitted to the Government and replies received 74. By letter dated 20 April 1994 the Special Rapporteur informed the Government that he had received information concerning Slavi Atanasov Minchev, Denko Angelov Atanasov and Milko Raikov Lolev, who were among a group of nine Roma men arrested on 23 June 1993 by armed guards and police officers while picking cherries in an orchard outside Stara Zagora. They were allegedly beaten indiscriminately with truncheons, fists and boots, taken to the Stara Zagora agricultural cooperative and again beaten severely. 75. On 10 November 1994 the Government replied that the three men had been picking cherries without permission. They were charged with committing administrative offences at the agricultural cooperative office and released. An inquiry carried out by the Ministry of the Interior revealed that they had not been beaten by the armed guards of the agricultural cooperative nor by the police patrol. Investigations have been opened by the Regional Police Department of Stara Zagora and the Regional Military Prosecutor of the city of Plovdiv pursuant to a complaint by Slavi Atanasov Minchev. Information transmitted by the Government with respect to cases included in previous reports 76. On 22 December 1993 and 16 February 1994 the Government transmitted its reply with respect to the cases which had been transmitted by the Special Rapporteur on 26 August 1993. Those replies are summarized in the following paragraphs. 77. In regard to the allegations of excessive force used by the police against Roma persons in Pazardjik on 28 June 1992, the Government replied that after a person armed with a knife had attempted to assault a guard, police