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Nepal urged to disband counter insurgency Village
Defence Forces
New Delhi: Asian Centre
for Human Rights (ACHR) expressed serious concerns about the formation
of the Village Defense Force (VDF) by the Royal Nepal Army and urged
the government of Nepal to disband the VDFs and find a political
solution to the crisis rather than promoting more violations of
human rights and fundamental freedoms. As an experiment, the Royal
Nepal Army in the last week of November 2003 formed VDFs at Larumba
of Bajo Village Development Committee in Ilam district, recruited
30 militias and provided them with arms training and necessary weapons.
The United Nations Basic
Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials
require the governments and law enforcement agencies to adopt and
implement rules and regulations on the use of force and firearms
against persons by law enforcement officials. "However, the
VDFs have no formal training or rules and regulations under what
circumstances the fire-arms could be used or the hierarchy to keep
the ethical issues associated with the use of force and firearms
constantly under review. The formation of VDFs is a concrete step
towards the leading the country to full scale civil war as it blurs
the distinctions between civilians and combatants." -stated
Suhas Chakma, Director of ACHR.
"The civilians are
being forced to decide whether they are with the government or not
as refusal to join the VDFs will be construed as supporting the
Maoists" - further stated Chakma.
The formation of VDFs is
nothing but an attempt to rewrite the Nepal's version of the history
of gross human rights violations in Latin America. The militia and
vigilante groups like the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia
and Patrullas de Autodefensa Civil of Guatemala have failed to counter
insurgency but were responsible for gross and widespread human rights
violations. While examining Peru's human rights record in 1992,
the United Nations Human Rights Committee held that that "The
acceptance by the Government of Civilian vigilante groups that have
full army support, ….. has worsened the situation".[END]
For
more information please call Director of Asian Centre for Human
Rights in New Delhi
India
at +91-11-25503624 or 25620583
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