Amnesty International Reports Amnesty International Report 2004 Twenty steps to stop slide towards human rights catastrophe Fear for safety - Fear of torture Amnesty International Reports Nepal

May 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.

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.

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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