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STATE
OF EMERGENCY IMPERILS INFORMATION FLOW
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Nepal
has been plunged into a political crisis following a state of emergency,
with communications with the outside world cut off and martial law imposed
in the country. On 1 February 2005, King Gyanendra sacked the government,
ordered troops into the streets and closed the international airport. All
communications, including e-mail, have been cut and privately-owned FM
radio stations have been forced to cancel news programmes, report Human
Rights Watch, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Reporters
Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) and the Committee
to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The
IFEX members have expressed grave concerns about the safety of journalists
and human rights, following the king's decision to restrict civil liberties,
including freedom of the press, the constitutional protection against censorship
and the right against preventive detention.
The
King's decision is reportedly linked to the failure of the government,
led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, to bring Maoist rebels to the
negotiating table and to organise parliamentary elections next spring,
says RSF. Armed guards have surrounded the homes of Deuba and other senior
politicians. The King has announced the formation of a new cabinet which,
he says, will "restore peace and effective democracy in this country within
the next three years."
While
privately-owned FM radios have been ordered to stop broadcasting, state-owned
radio programmes and television stations are continuing to function.
This
is not the first time that King Gyanendra has declared a state of emergency,
says RSF. In November 2001, he imposed martial law and within four months,
security forces had arrested more than 100 hundred journalists.
RSF
says Nepal has the highest number of journalists arrested in the world.
The
UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), which
concluded a fact-finding mission to Nepal on 14 December 2004, says it
has received more reports of disappearances in Nepal than from any other
country in the world.
UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, has expressed serious
concerns about the state of emergency. She has urged King Gyanendra to
live up to his "unequivocal commitment to human rights, democracy and multiparty
rule," which he expressed during Arbour's visit to Nepal in late January
2005.
Arbour
says people are "being subjected to violence and brutality on a staggering
scale as a result of the armed conflict between the government and the
Maoist rebels."
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