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News :: Miscellaneous |
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U.S. supports repressive regime in Nepal |
Current rating: 0 |
by Sage
Email: sagenepal (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified!)
Address: Boston |
26 May 2002
Modified: 11:14:01 PM |
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In order to continue the "state of emergency" against the wishes of parliament, King Gyanendra dissolved parliament. The press is under strict censorship, and government security forces have been acting with impunity, engaging in torture and summary execution, and killing of noncombatants. Yet the U.S. has increased support for the Nepali state. |
Nepal's King Gyanendra dissolved the Nepali parliament on May 22. The King and Prime Minister Deuba wanted to extend "emergency rule", which curtails freedom of the press and gives the army and police sweeping powers in their fight against the Maoist guerrilla insurgency.
Factions in both the majority Nepali Congress party and almost the whole minority party were opposed to extending the state of emergency, which requires a two-thirds vote. The measure was not likely to pass.
Dissolving parliament is, surprisingly, within the King's constitutional power, revealing that fundamentally Nepal remains a monarchy with democratic trappings. The King also has full sovereignty over the Royal Nepalese Army.
Three ministers have resigned in protest over the dissolution of parliament, and Prime Minister Deuba is being suspended from the Nepali Congress party for his complicity with the dissolution.
Over 100 journalists have been arrested and detained in Nepal since the declaration of the state of emergency six months ago. Many are still in detention. Several newspapers have been shut down. FM radio stations are prohibited from broadcasting news, leaving only the state-run Radio Nepal to broadcast news. All copies of one issue of Nepal's largest English-language daily, the Kathmandu Post, were siezed by the government for printing photographs of Maoist rebels in a "too favorable" light, according to the government. Journalists are self-censoring, fearing interrogation and arrest by government censors.
The government security forces have killed noncombatants and tried to cover up the executions and intimidation by demanding affadavits from villagers that the slain were killed in combat situations, according to several news reports by foreign journalists in Nepal. Security forces have also summarily executed captured Maoists instead of holding them prisoner. There have also been numerous reports of torture perpetrated by the Nepali police, a continuation of a long-running police tradition in Nepal.
In light of such impunity against international conventions on human rights in warfare, the U.S. has nonetheless pledged to increase ongoing foreign military assitance to Nepal by $20 million this year. "It's obviously an internal matter to be worked out within Nepal's democratic system through procedures established by their constitution," said State Department spokesman Philip Reeker as quoted by the AFP newswire. "They certainly continue to struggle against the Maoist insurgency that we've talked about and we reiterate our support for the right of the government of Nepal to safeguard their citizens against the Maoists guerrillas within the framework of the constitution."
"The dissolution of parliament does not affect our plans to provide economic and security assistance to Nepal," he said.
The Bush administration and the government of Nepal are using the events of September 11 to legitimize U.S. financing of the Nepali military through the Department of Defense's "foreign military financing" program. Just after September 11, references to the insurgents by the government of Nepal, and mainstream media inside and outside of Nepal, switched from using the word "Maoists" to "terrorists". Thus, the class war in Nepal has become part of the global "War on Terrorism", despite the fact that there are no known connections between the Nepali insurgents and Al Qaeda or any other religious fundamentalist group.
Nepal Solidarity Network: http://nepalsolidarity.net/ |
See also:
nepalsolidarity.net
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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL DENOUNCES NEPALI HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES |
by Amnesty International
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
26 May 2002
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AI Index: ASA 31/035/2002 (Public) News Service No: 81 7 May 2002
Nepal: Unlawful killings must be prevented
Amnesty International today called for an independent investigation in response to reports that more than 500 members of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) have been killed by the security forces at Lisne Lek in Rolpa district since 3 May. The organization warned there could be more killings as the security forces' operation is continuing and several hundred Maoists are reportedly being surrounded.
The official figures given are: 548 Maoists, three soldiers and one policeman killed. "So far, no figures have been released with the number of Maoists wounded or arrested. That could be an indication that the security forces went out to deliberately kill rather than arrest, a common practice in Nepal," Amnesty International said.
Amnesty International is urging that the bodies are not immediately disposed of and that the scene of the killings is safeguarded to ensure that an independent investigation can verify the exact circumstances of the killings. It calls upon the authorities to give full cooperation to any inquiry, including by providing prompt and unhindered access to the areas concerned.
An independent investigation team, from the National Human Rights Commission of Nepal or a similar body, should be given powers to ascertain whether international human rights and humanitarian law standards have been respected and to recommend criminal prosecution of anyone found to have been responsible for unlawful killings.
Amnesty International is concerned that the figures of people killed, as provided by the Ministry of Defence, suggest that international standards which require the security forces to respect the right to life and refrain from using lethal force unless absolutely necessary have not been respected. While acknowledging the grave threat to law and order in the country posed by the Maoists, Amnesty International is maintaining that in such circumstances, it is important for the security forces to respect the right to life and uphold international standards on the use of force and treatment of prisoners.
Amnesty International has also expressed concern at rewards for the capture, dead or alive, of senior Maoist leaders issued by the authorities recently. "Such announcements amount to an encouragement by the authorities for the security forces to violate the right to life. They undermine the rule of law and guarantees of due process as laid down in the Constitution."
Background information In a report Nepal: A spiralling human rights crisis issued on 4 April 2002, Amnesty International expressed concern about an escalation of human rights abuses committed by the Maoists and security forces, especially since the declaration of a state of emergency in November 2001.
The right to life is not explicitly guaranteed in the 1990 Constitution of Nepal. Under Article 4 (2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Nepal is a party, there can be no derogations from the duty to uphold the right to life even "in time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation". The Nepal Treaty Act of 1993 stipulated that provisions in international treaties to which Nepal is a party will supercede Nepalese law where there is divergence.
Since the start of the "people's war", there has been increasing concern that the authorities have failed to impose strict limitations on the use of force and firearms by the security forces or to take appropriate actions against abuses. This concern has heightened after the army was called out and the state of emergency imposed in late November 2001. Since then, the number of alleged unlawful killings have increased dramatically. The reported incidents have included killings of civilians in reprisal for the killing of police and army personnel by members of the CPN (Maoist); killings of armed members of the CPN (Maoist) in circumstances where they could have been taken into custody or where they already had been taken prisoner, and the avoidable use of lethal force.
For a copy of the report Nepal: A spiralling human rights crisis visit: http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/recent/asa310162002
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