| FACTS |
According
to the UN news service IRIN, the representative of the UN Secretary-General
on Human Rights, Walter Kälin, found that there was a widespread pattern
of conflict-induced displacement in the Asian nation, with the main causes
being acts of violence or threats against the population, practices of
forced recruitment and extortion by the Maoist armed group, fear of reprisals
by the Royal Nepal Army for allegedly providing food or shelter to Maoists
(even when this was provided under duress) and a generalised climate of
insecurity.
Nepal
and India share a largely unregulated 1,750-km open border and Kälin
said India could be holding more displaced Nepalese than those that were
in the Himilayan kingdom itself.
Such
a reality points to another problem. Nepal, a nation of some 27 million,
does not have proper camps for the displaced. There are about 100 families
at Rajena, a camp near Nepalgunj in the Midwestern region of the country.
"We've
heard reports that younger Nepalese were moving due to forced conscription.
In some areas, up to 80 percent of the host population has left over the
years," Walter Kälin, representative of the UN Secretary-General on
Human Rights said. |
