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Annan
urged to intervene on Nepal
New Delhi: Asian Centre
for Human Rights in a memoradum to the visiting UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan urge to intervene for the restoration of democracy in
Nepal and request India, USA and UK not to resume military supplies
without the restoration of multi-party democracy in Nepal.
The arrest of former Prime
Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba today early morning and his former colleague
Minister Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta on 26 April 2005 shows that there
is no let up on the repression of political activists. While some
senior political leaders have been released, hundreds of political
activists at the district level have been arrested under the Public
Safety Act and they have been put under detention for 90 days without
any trial. The detainees have been denied proper health and sanitation
facilities and held incommunicado.
On 26 April 2005, a team of the National Human Rights Commission
was prevented from visiting the Pahara Battalion at Tripureshwor
to examine the condition of political leaders and cadres detained
there after Feb 1.
The Secretary General was
urged to send his Special Representative on children caught in armed
conflict situations. While the Maoists deliberately targeted educational
institutions and children, the Royal Nepal Army personnel have also
killed many children. On 22 March 2005, three youth – Narayan Bahadur Kanauji
Magar (17) of Class IX, Tek Bahadur Gaha (15) of Class VIII, and
Dal Bahadur Darlami (15) of Class VI– were shot dead by plain-clothes
security personnel taking them for Maoists. No RNA personnel has
been punished.
There is complete ban on
press freedom. Over a dozen journalists continue to be detained.
On 26 April 2005, police arrested Dwarika Uprety, publisher of the Nepali weekly, Roadmap
from Putalisadak, Kathmandu. The government continues to detain human
rights activists, political leaders and academics within Kathmandu
valley and severely restrict freedom of movement.
The Secretary General was
urged to send an investigation team to investigate violations of
the war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal
Court for appropriate actions by the International Criminal Court.
Ends/
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