Nepal
in Crisis 2005: Human Rights
|
A
tortured past and torturous future
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July
2005
UN
Special Rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, is visiting Nepal in September. |
Pun
Kumar still shakes with fear as he recalls the night that the Maoist rebels
tortured and left him for dead in Kailali when he refused to pay Rs100,000
and join them.
They
dragged him out of his home and beat him senseless. They clobbered the
soles of his feet with heavy sticks and brutally pounded him all over his
body with the butt of their guns.
The
torturers are from both the security forces and the Maoists, the victims
are mostly civilians. Activists and lawyers say the most widely used forms
of torture are beatings, electric shocks, hooded or blindfolded for long
periods, crushing bones by rolling rocks on victim"s thighs. Other extreme
forms of torture like gouging eyes, cutting off body parts and dismemberment
are common, and often precede death.
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