|
Amnesty
International: Reports on Nepal |
May
2004
Amnesty
Interntional published the Annual Report 2004 |
Maoist
abuses
Maoist
abuses were reported during the cease-fire and escalated following the
resumption of hostilities. Following the breakdown of the cease-fire, there
were reports that 30 civilians had been killed by the Maoists. Maoists
were also responsible for over 40 abductions and several reports of torture
of abductees.
Child
soldiers
There
were reports that the CPN (Maoist) continued to abduct and recruit children
between the ages of 15 and 18. Reports were received that scores of secondary-school
children were abducted from schools in mid-western and far west regions
and held for short periods for "re-education". It was alleged that the
CPN (Maoist) used the cease-fire to recruit more children into their ranks.
The CPN (Maoist) denied that children aged under 16 were recruited into
its army or trained in the use of guns.
Human
rights monitoring
No
monitoring mechanism was put in place to implement the human rights provisions
in the Code of Conduct governing the cease-fire. A Human Rights Accord
drafted by the NHRC in May, mandating it to set up five regional offices
to monitor human rights with technical assistance provided by the UN, was
presented to the government and CPN (Maoist). Both sides agreed in principle
to the Accord, although neither had signed up to it by the end of the year.
Extrajudicial
executions
Reports
of extrajudicial executions by the security forces were received during
the cease-fire and increased following the resumption of hostilities.
'Disappearances'
Following
the breakdown of the cease-fire in August, more than 150 people were reported
to have "disappeared" after arrest during counter-insurgency operations
by the security forces in Kathmandu and other districts.
Torture
and ill-treatment
Torture
and ill-treatment of detainees in the custody of the RNA, Armed Police
Force (APF) and civilian police continued to be reported regularly.
Nepal:
Twenty steps to stop slide towards human rights catastrophe |
AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL
PRESS
RELEASE
4
February 2004
At
the end of a two-week visit to Nepal, an Amnesty International delegation
urged the government to take urgent measures to prevent the country sliding
towards a human rights catastrophe. The delegates conducted on-site investigations
in Dhanusha, Sarlahi, Kavre and Nuwakot districts where they investigated
reports of extra-judicial executions, arbitrary arrests and "disappearances"
by the security forces and reports of human rights abuses by the Communist
Party of Nepal (CPN (Maoist).
On the basis of information gathered on this
visit, and previous visits to the country since the start of the armed
insurgency between the security forces and the Communist Party of Nepal
(CPN) (Maoist) in 1996, Amnesty International concluded that elements of
the armed forces seem to be pursuing a strategy of "disappearances" and
extra-judicial executions as part of their counter-insurgency operations.
As a result, hundreds of people have "disappeared", are in unacknowledged
detention or have been extra-judicially executed. Relatives of victims
have found themselves powerless and in a judicial limbo because the justice
system is failing in its duty of establishing the whereabouts of their
loved ones, or the circumstance of their killing or "disappearance".
Amnesty
International also strongly condemned abuses by the CPN (Maoist), including
the abduction and killing of civilians and the forced recruitment and indoctrination
of school students. Amnesty International is investigating the recent reports
of a mass abduction of school students in Bajura district, Western Nepal.
The delegates spent two days meeting with government authorities including
Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa, Major General Kul Bahadur Khadka, Chief
of the National Security Council, Deputy Superintendent of Police Nawa
Raj Silwal, from the Human Rights Cell at Police Headquarters, Ravi Raj
Thapa, Additional Inspector General of Police of the Armed Police Force
and Major General Amar Panta and other members of the Royal Nepal Army
(RNA) human rights cell.
They also met with members of the National Human
Rights Commission (NHRC) and Mr Kul Ratna Bhurtel of the Human Rights Promotion
Centre. Among Amnesty International's recommendations - many of which
can be implemented rapidly if there is political will - are:
Amnesty International
calls on the government to sign the Human Rights Accord, which would give
the NHRC a mandate to establish up to five regional offices to monitor
human rights with technical assistance provided by the United Nations (UN);
Reports of extra-judicial executions and "disappearances" by the security
forces should be independently and impartially investigated and the findings
made public, and alleged perpetrators brought to justice under normal criminal
proceedings and not by military tribunals; The Royal Nepal Army should
end the practice of illegal incommunicado detention in army barracks and
should hand over detainees to police custody within 24 hours of arrest;
The authorities should end the practice of "disappearance" and should make
"disappearance" an offence under Nepali law;
The
authorities should ensure that interrogation takes place only at official
recognized places of detention. In order to eliminate the practice of torture
the authorities should adopt the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur
on Torture;
The
government should take immediate steps to invite the UN thematic mechanisms,
including the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances,
the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the UN Special Rapporteur
on torture, and the UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or
arbitrary executions, to visit the country as soon as possible.
Among
recommendations to the leadership of the CPN (Maoist) are:
The
leadership should sign the Human Rights Accord, drawn up by the NHRC, which
would provide for human rights monitoring in the country; It should cease
the policy of abduction and killing of civilians; The CPN (Maoist) should
make a commitment not to recruit or otherwise use children in activities
related to the conflict;
The
leadership of the CPN (Maoist) should make a public commitment to respect
the humanitarian missions of all humanitarian agencies, including NGOs,
the UN and relief missions.
Amnesty
International called on the international community to take steps to prevent
the human rights catastrophe continuing to unfold.
Nepal:
Fear for safety - Fear of torture |
AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL
PRESS
RELEASE
5
February 2004
Tula
Thapa (m), aged 36,
Teacher
Rajendra Adhikari (m), aged 30
Ram
Bahadur Rana (m), aged 30
Man
Bahadur Shah (m), aged 52
The
four men named above were arrested on 1 February in the far west of Nepal.
Several witnesses have reported that all four are being tortured in police
custody. Relatives and lawyers have been denied access to the men, and
so far police have not presented them before any court. All four men live
in Bramhatole Village Development Committee (VDC), Bajura district. It
is believed they are held in the District Police Office in< Martadi,
the Bajura district headquarters. Ram Bahadur Rana and Tula Thapa were
reportedly arrested in Martadi, whilst Rajendra Adhikari and Man Bahadur
Shah were arrested by security forces on patrol in Bramhatole VDC. Witnesses
suggest that Rajendra Adhikari and Ram Bahadur Rana were arrested on charges
of agreeing to buy rice which had been looted from the government Food
for Work Programme by members of the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) (Maoist).
It is not known why Tula Thapa and Man Bahadur Shah were arrested.
BACKGROUND
INFORMATION
Amnesty
International has been concerned about a deterioration in the human rights
situation in Nepal since the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) (Maoist) launched
a "people's war" in February 1996. Reports of human rights abuses by both
the security forces and the CPN (Maoist) escalated after the army was mobilized
and a state of emergency imposed between November 2001 and August 2002.
Many people were arrested under the 2002 Terrorist and Disruptive Activities
(Control and Punishment) Act (TADA), which gave the security forces the
power to arrest without warrant and detain suspects in police custody for
up to 90 days. Scores of people are reported to have been held for weeks
or even months in illegal detention in army custody without access to their
families, lawyers or medical treatment. In 2002, Nepal recorded the highest
number of "disappearances" of any country in the world.
The CPN (Maoist)
are also reported to have abducted scores of people. Torture has been a
longstanding concern in Nepal and is reported almost daily. Torture methods
include rape, electric shock treatment, belana (rolling a heavy weighted
stick along the thigh muscles), falanga (beatings on the soles of the feet),
random beatings and mock executions. Despite Nepal's ratification of the
United Nations (UN) Convention against Torture in 1991, torture is not
a criminal offence in the country. The 1996 Torture Compensation Act (TCA)
allows victims of torture, or relatives of people who have died in custody
as a result of torture, to apply to the district courts for compensation.
Amnesty International is concerned that police and the judiciary are not
fully adhering to the requirements of the TCA and that some officials are
putting obstacles in the way of victims trying to file cases or requesting
medical examinations in order to gain redress under the Act. The UN Special
Rapporteur on torture, the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of
opinion and expression and the Chairperson of the Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention expressed "profound concern over reports that dozens of individuals
are being detained secretly in Nepal and are therefore at risk of suffering
torture and other forms of ill-treatment" in a November 2003 press release.
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