also inserted a cudgel into her genitals. They then left her there. The case is under investigation by the Office of the Attorney for Human Rights in San Pedro Sula. The Subcommittee was also told of the case of another woman, also a demonstrator, who was seen for the last time in the hands of two members of the Preventive Police. The family has not been able to find her since. She was still missing when the Subcommittee received a statement from the lawyers who had applied for habeas corpus on her behalf. 56.On 18 September 2009 the Subcommittee visited the police station in Choloma. The Subcommittee noted that the arrests of 14 August 2009 were not recorded in the detention register, although a cursory mention was made in the duty log. 57.On 3 August 2009, a public defender from San Pedro Sula was appointed enforcement judge by the San Pedro Sula Appeal Court in a habeas corpus action. In the exercise of his duties, he went to police station No. 1 in the Lempira district, where there were 29 people who had been arrested and beaten for taking part in the demonstrations. At first he was refused entry to the police station. When he insisted, a policeman grabbed him by the shirt collar and took him into the office. He was shoved around and slapped by several policemen, who also insulted him and made coarse remarks. When he protested, one policeman loaded his gun and aimed it at his chest. 58.The Subcommittee also received information about people who had been ill-treated following their arrest for breaking the curfew. The Attorney for Human Rights in San Pedro Sula, for example, gave the Subcommittee a copy of an application to the criminal court of San Pedro Sula in respect of a youth who was arrested by police at around 10.20 p.m. on 3 July 2009 and taken to the San José del Boquerón police station, where he was supposedly going to be held until the next day. He was placed in a cell and then taken out again, and several policemen beat him repeatedly with their rifles in the face, chest and stomach. He was then taken to the Rivera Hernández police station, where they refused to take him because of the condition he was in, and the policemen who had beaten him were asked to take him to hospital themselves. After treatment at the hospital he was again taken to the San José del Boquerón police station and released the next day. The prosecutor determined that these acts constituted abuse of authority and bodily injury perpetrated by six police officers. 59.The Subcommittee is concerned about allegations it has received concerning the use of military personnel who, together with the police (the Preventive Police or the Cobra squad), took control of law and order during the incidents associated with the constitutional crisis. The Subcommittee received allegations of abuse and of serious cases of excessive use of force by military personnel in dispersing some demonstrations (for instance in Choloma when clearing the bridge at San Pedro Sula on 14 August 2009). On other occasions, military staff who manned posts during the curfew allegedly blocked roads that could be used by demonstrators to obtain humanitarian assistance. 60.While the use of military personnel to maintain law and order is permissible in some circumstances under national legislation, in the Subcommittee’s view it is highly inadvisable and should be reserved for very exceptional situations. Military personnel are neither trained nor equipped to perform law and order functions. The use of military forces should normally be reserved for circumstances in which warlike clashes call for the use of extreme force of a kind that only military professionals are trained to wield. They are not appropriate personnel for controlling crowds or dispersing demonstrations, and they should certainly not perform custodial duties. Moreover, if the State decides to take the extreme step of involving its armed forces in the maintenance of law and order and the handling of disturbances, it must ensure that the forces in question operate in accordance with international norms governing the use of force and the conduct of law enforcement officers. 61. The Subcommittee recommends that the State should redouble its efforts to prevent the involvement of the armed forces in the maintenance of law and order as part of a wider programme aimed at preventing ill-treatment and the excessive use of force. Where it is absolutely necessary to involve the army in the maintenance of law and order, the necessary steps should be taken to train all military groups to ensure that their actions are consistent with respect for human rights and the proportionate use of force. It also recommends that the police, and any other security or military force being used to restore public order in the event of civil unrest, should use appropriate equipment and instruments in order to restore order with the least possible risk to individuals’ physical and mental safety. 62.In its reply to the Subcommittee’s preliminary observations, the Office of the Attorney-General remarked that this recommendation was reasonable as a basis for a broader programme to forestall the risk of excessive use of force. 63.The Subcommittee received worrying testimony about what appeared to be the involvement of criminal groups, notably maras (gangs), in one incident of political repression. In the course of the Subcommittee’s visit, for the Independence Day celebrations on 15 September 2009, two events had been planned, one by the opposition and the other by the Government. The leaders of a very well-known student band had decided that they would play at the opposition event. As the buses that had been hired for the young musicians were preparing to leave, a group of suspected mara members reportedly came and forced them to go to the place where the government event was to take place. A group of teachers tried to intervene but three of them were brutally beaten by the alleged maras with sticks and stones, causing injuries the Subcommittee saw for itself. This incident reportedly took place within view of police officers, who later apparently helped to transfer the individuals identified by the complainants as mara members. The use of criminal groups for such purposes is extremely worrying. Such practices are not only illegal in themselves but can easily get out of hand; in the past they have resulted in tragic patterns of human rights violations. 64.In its reply to the Subcommittee’s preliminary observations, the Office of the Attorney-General called in question the veracity of this description of events. The Office nevertheless noted that there was good reason to open a case in order to establish what really happened, and the recommendation was thus accepted. 65. The Subcommittee urges the Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate this incident thoroughly, and recommends that senior police officials should give clear instructions to those units concerned that under no circumstances are practices such as those described permissible. 66.The Subcommittee was told by the authorities it met that military and police personnel had been injured by those taking part in the