E/CN.4/1998/38 page 29 Namibia 142. The Special Rapporteur transmitted one urgent appeal to the Government on behalf of one individual and his family. Nepal 143. In a letter of 20 June 1997, the Special Rapporteur informed the Government that he had continued to receive information according to which persons suspected of being members or sympathizers of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) or its affiliate, the Samyukta Jana Morcha, were subjected to torture or other ill-treatment following arrest, especially in the mid-western region of Nepal. The methods of torture reported to be inflicted most frequently were beatings on the soles of the feet (falanga) and the application of rollers, usually in the form of a weighted bamboo cane, down the legs of the victim (belana). The latter method was said to cause muscle damage and/or renal failure. 144. He also transmitted allegations concerning 14 individuals and a number of unnamed persons. 145. On 27 March 1997, the Government replied to general allegations, as well as one collective case, transmitted in 1996. The former concerned the alleged ill-treatment of Maoist political activists in mid-western Nepal, reports of repeated beatings, beatings to the soles of the feet, the placing of nettles on the body and the use of rollers on the thighs, as well as alleged incommunicado detention for over 24 hours. The Government denied each of the allegations. Observations 146. The consistency of allegations of torture and ill-treatment reaching the Special Rapporteur indicate a pressing need for the Government to ensure scrupulous investigations of the cases concerned and to put in place measures that will avoid law enforcement officials having a sense of impunity when they resort to criminal methods in the course of their work. Niger 147. The Special Rapporteur transmitted to the Government reports concerning four individuals. Two were members of a group of demonstrators said to have been arrested in Niamey on 11 July 1996 then taken to the military camp at Ekrafane. Nigeria 148. The Special Rapporteur transmitted seven urgent appeals, some of them collective, on behalf of 18 individuals. One urgent appeal was sent in conjunction with the Chairman of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of an individual case concerning which the Special Rapporteur had already transmitted an urgent appeal in 1996. Two urgent appeals on behalf of a group of journalists were transmitted in conjunction with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion