E/CN.4/1992/17 page 47 be suffering from paralysis of the left leg. According to the source, Dr. Khurshid was being held without charge or trial in an unknown place of detention; his family had not seen him since his arrest and it was not known whether he had received any medical attention. Letters and Government replies 141. On 17 April 1991 the Special Rapporteur sent a letter to the Government of Kuwait transmitting information according to which some Arab nationals living in Kuwait, and in particular people of Palestinian descent, had, since the end of the Gulf war, been the subject of persecution, arrest and torture, in reprisal for their alleged support of the Iraqi forces during the occupation of the country. It was alleged that both members of the regular Kuwaiti armed forces and armed kuwaiti civilians were responsible for such practices. It was further alleged that people of Palestinian descent were tortured and killed in Wing 18 of an unspecified hospital. According to a foreign press agency, on 13 March 1991 Salah Abdel Rahim, aged 19, claimed that he had been tortured by Kuwaiti armed elements at Al-Areidiyeh school; and on the same date Mahmud Hussein, aged 21, affirmed that he had been subjected to beatings with electrified batons by Kuwaiti armed elements at Al-Jahra school. Similar incidents were also reported by various other press agencies and newspapers. 142. On 29 May 1991 the Government replied, rejecting the allegations as deriving from "questionable sources" and adding that the few individual cases in which persons who supported and collaborated with the Iraqi forces were ill-treated in Kuwait occurred during the early days following the country's liberation, and some of those incidents might have been committed by the "human detonators" which the Iraqi intelligence services planted in Kuwait before their withdrawal in order to foment sedition in the country. At all events, if such incidents occurred, they were a natural reaction against persons who collaborated with the invading Iraqi forces. The fact that some foreign communities were still residing in Kuwait and had not left the country, even though the Kuwaiti Government had not prevented anyone from leaving as long as no charges had been brought against him, indicated that the security situation in Kuwait was reassuring and that its foreign residents were enjoying excellent living conditions. 143. On 18 October 1991 the Special Rapporteur sent a letter to the Government of Kuwait transmitting information on the following cases: (a) Mahmoud Diyab Abdalla, aged 35 and his cousin Omar Abdalla, were reportedly arrested on 17 March 1991 on the accusation of illegal residence in Kuwait. They were taken to a detention place in an area west of Kuwait City, where they were severely beaten. Omar Abdalla, in particular, was hit over the head with a wooden stick studded with nails. Their injuries required medical treatment at the al-Farwaniyya hospital. (b) Bessam Mahmoud Selaiman, aged 19, was on 15 March 1991 while waiting in line at a gas was taken by five military men to a tent nearby head, back and legs with a wooden stick covered reportedly arrested station in al-Edailiyya. He and beaten for hours on his with hard plastic; he was also