E/CN.4/1995/34 page 74 women, were held in unacknowledged and frequently incommunicado detention for periods ranging from a few hours to several months. Most such persons were held without access to lawyers and relatives and were reportedly subjected to physical and psychological abuse before being released without being charged. The following individual cases were transmitted. 388. Salvador Sarmento, a student at the Pastoral Institute in Dili, was reportedly seized by members of the military on 4 January 1994 and taken to an unknown location, where he was beaten, kicked and tortured nearly to death. The authorities afterwards were said to have forced his parents to declare that they had seen their son participate in subversive meetings. 389. Benevides Correia Barros, an East Timorese student, and Francisco Almeida Godinho were reportedly arrested by two soldiers on 13 September 1993 in Maliana after being observed taking photographs in a field. They were allegedly tortured, threatened with execution and then taken to a hut wherein they were stripped naked and beaten on the head, chest, genitals, kidneys, thighs and knees. The soldiers then reportedly drove them to Kodim, Maliana, where they were accused of taking photographs to be used for political purposes and deprived of food and drink and not allowed to urinate for three days. They allegedly had their hands tied so as to make the cuffs cut into their flesh, and were kicked with boots and their heads were hit against a wall. On three occasions, Benevides Barros was allegedly driven by car to a spot where he was told to kneel down and pray because he was about to be executed. On 26 September, the men were transferred to Special Intelligence Task Force Headquarters, subjected to further interrogation, and released after signing a statement promising not to repeat their activities. 390. Adelino Gomes Fonseca was among 20 students said to have been arrested during a military operation in Baucau district on 24 December 1992. He allegedly received heavy beatings during interrogation, which were said to have caused severe chest pains, difficulty in breathing, bleeding and swollen closed eyes. He died the morning after his arrest, allegedly as a consequence of the beatings. 391. Fernando Boavida, also among those students arrested in Baucau on 24 December 1992, was reported to have been tortured to death. During his interrogation, he was allegedly forced to lie on a plank covered with sharp nails. When he failed to give what the interrogators regarded as a satisfactory reply, they allegedly placed another plank on top of him and a tyre on top of that plank. He was said to have lost consciousness and died on 27 December 1992. 392. By the same letter the Special Rapporteur reminded the Government of a number of cases transmitted in 1993 regarding which no reply had been received. Urgent appeals transmitted and replies received 393. The Special Rapporteur transmitted two urgent appeals on behalf of the persons in the cases described below.