ALRC Statement on 'Gross acts of violence against children and zero rule of law in Nepal' received by Commission on Human Rights (7 April 2005)

Summary: The written statement of the Asian Legal
Resource Centre (ALRC) on 'Gross acts of
violence against children and zero rule of law
in Nepal' (E/CN.4/2005/NGO/51) was
distributed on April 7, 2005, at the Sixty-first
Session of the UN Commission on Human
Rights in Geneva.

Gross acts of violence against children and zero rule of law in Nepal

1. In a 124-page report released this January 2005, the Asian Legal
Resource Centre (ALRC) and the Kathmandu-based Advocacy Forum have
described how the fundamental rights of people in Nepal have been
suspended as institutions for the rule of law have ceased to
function. In other statements made to the Commission this year, the
ALRC has described the zero rule of law in Nepal, and detailed
incidents of extrajudicial killing, forced disappearance, torture,
and violence against women there. In a number of those it details
incidents of killing, forced disappearance and torture of children.
In this submission, it adds some further cases of gross acts of
violence committed upon Nepalese children speaking to the total
collapse of any means for the protection of human rights in the
country, in breach of Nepal's commitments under the Convention on the
Rights of the Child.

2. As the rule of law in Nepal has all but ceased to exist, children
have been subjected to the same torture, killing and forced
disappearances as adults in the country. Since 26 November 2001, when
the Royal Nepalese Army was unleashed on the population under a
one-year-long national state of emergency, it has also systematically
violated the rights of all persons throughout the country without
regards to other factors. When carrying out operations, the Nepalese
security forces do not discriminate between a 12-year-old and a
21-year-old.

3. The brutal torture and murder of 14-year-old Kaliram Tharu and
some friends in Bardiya district dramatically illustrates this point.
Kaliram and his friends were minding cattle and playing together
around 3pm on 25 April 2002 when a group of 50-60 uniformed and armed
Joint Security Force personnel approached. The troops asked the boys
if they had learnt martial arts. Being children and seeking to
impress the soldiers, one of them boastfully replied that they had
training and were paid 150 rupees a month. The security officers then
accused the boys of being Maoists. Despite them saying that they were
just students, the officers started beating them, and took them
towards a nursery located on the eastern side of the village. As they
were being taken, Kaliram's mother approached the troops and asked
them why they had taken the boys. The soldiers replied that the
children were Maoists.

4. At the nursery, the boys were beaten and kicked for a further 15
minutes, after which time they were taken to the Vici Barracks, where
they were forced to strip to their underwear and lie on the dirt.
Then they were taken to the District Police Office, where Kaliram
could not eat the food provided due to swelling on his face. At
around 7pm, three of the boys, including Kaliram, were taken to the
east of the village in a van. They did not come back. Only one person
who had been taken to the police station, 27-year-old Bhikhu Tharu,
was released. The next day, Radio Nepal routinely covered-up the
killings by announcing that three Maoists had been killed in an
encounter in Mohamadpur area, and bombs, pistols and other materials
had been seized. The news did not give names.

5. Some other acts of torture, rape and killing of children by the
security forces in Nepal detailed in the ALRC-Advocacy Forum report
include the following:

a. Bandara (a.k.a.) Ram Prasad Dhobi, a 15-year-old student in grade
five, was killed along with four men, Munabber Khan, 25, Mohammad
Khan, 30, Rajjab Khan, 25 and Mahendra Barma, 30, by security forces
around 6am on 3 April 2004. The group of about 12 personnel from the
joint command came on bicycles and captured all five, of Banke
district, while they were sleeping on the roof of Ram Janaki Temple
of Sonbarsha village. They tied the hands of the five behind their
backs, forced them to lie on the road and beat them with batons and
kicked them with their boots. They then told each of the men to run
towards the fields in turn, and shot them in the head. Initially they
spared Ram Prasad, but an officer from one of two vehicles that
arrived later shot him too. After that, they loaded the bodies into
one vehicle and drove in the direction of Nepalgunj.

b. Kumar Lama, a 15-year-old seller residing at Lazimpath, Kathmandu
was arrested in Taku at 11am on 29 December 2003 and taken to the
District Police Office of Hanumandhoka. According to Kumar, he was
sitting in the shop where he works when two plain-clothed policemen
came and arrested him. He was brought to Hanumandhoka in a van, and
taken to the interrogation section, where he was beaten for half an
hour .The police beat him with a wooden stick on his back, soles and
chest. At 10pm that night he was taken to the interrogation section
again and beaten for about two hours. Similar beatings continued over
about four days, for half an hour each day. While beating him they
told him to admit to committing theft, and to name his friends. His
older brother was subjected to similar treatment. Both were presented
in court on 14 January 2004 on charges of robbery. The judge did not
ask them about torture and nor were they provided any kind of medical
treatment.

c. Reena Rasaili, an 18-year-old grade 7 student, and Subhadra
Chaulagain, 17, of Kavrepalanchok district, were shot and killed
separately by a group of security personnel after midnight on 13
February 2004. According to Reena's father, around 10 plain-clothed
armed security personnel came to his house at midnight and called for
him to open the door. He did not open the door because of fear, so
they broke it open and entered the house. After searching it, they
pulled his daughter out from her bed and took her to the cowshed. The
house occupants then did not hear any conversation between Reena and
the security personnel, only her painful cries and moaning, which
continued for almost five hours. At around 5am the security personnel
took Reena 100 metres away from the shed and shot her three or four
times. The family found her body totally naked, with bullet injuries
to her head, breasts and eyes. She had injuries and scratches on her
stomach and chest. A national radio broadcast on February 13 named
Reena among three 'terrorists' killed that night in an encounter with
security forces.

d. Subhadra Chaulagain, a 17-year-old grade 9 student and resident of
Kavrepalanchok district, was detained by the security forces after
they gang-raped Reena Rasaili on 13 February 2004. When several
personnel came to her house around midnight, a friend who was
sleeping upstairs reportedly jumped out and ran away out of fear. The
security forces fired on him but could not capture him, so they went
and dragged Subhadra from bed and took her outside. She cried, saying
that she had not done anything wrong, and begged them to take her to
the district headquarters instead of killing her. However, the
personnel started to beat her brutally and pulled her along. The
family, which was forced back inside, then heard around nine
gunshots. After that, four security personnel severely beat up her
father, blaming him for supporting the Maoists. He finally lost
consciousness from the assault, but could not go to hospital because
of threats by the security forces. After the incident, Subhadra's
14-year-old brother, Ram Kumar Chaulagain, went into shock, refusing
to eat or drink, and went to offer food to the dead body of his
sister instead.

6. The absolute impunity with which the armed forces in Nepal today
operate is also evident in the forced disappearance of Pralahad
Waiba. Around 11:30am on 1 March 2004 an armed contingent of some
50-60 Royal Nepalese Army soldiers arrived on the road leading up to
the Shri Krishna Secondary School, under the command of the
lieutenant in charge of the Farping Check Post. Four of them in
civilian dress and carrying bags on their backs sneaked towards the
school. One remained at the school gate while the rest, among them
the lieutenant, walked into the school office, to the surprise of the
headmaster and his staff. The lieutenant unfolded a piece of paper
that was in his pocket and after scanning it asked the headmaster for
Pralahad Waiba. The headmaster then went to get 18-year-old Pralahad
from class 9, and bring him to the office. The soldiers took him some
15 metres away from the room, saying that they needed to talk
privately with the boy. Over a quarter of an hour passed, after which
the soldiers returned Pralahad's books and class attendance register
to the office before taking the boy away from the school before the
eyes of all his teachers and friends. When the headmaster asked why
they were taking his student, he was told to learn to keep records of
his students and staff, and that Pralahad was a Maoist.

7. Prahalad's father, who has been working at the same school as an
attendant for the last six years, was shocked that the soldiers could
take his son out of the school premises and before the eyes of
hundreds of people without any warrant. So too were Prahalad's
friends and teachers, who state that Prahalad was a naive,
introverted and honest boy who spoke only after his name was called a
few times, always helped with chores, and never left his home before
his arrest.

8. On 28 April 2004, Prahalad's mother went to the Farping Check Post
to meet her son, as he had still not returned to home, and she wanted
to give him some clothes. However, she was told that she could not
meet him. After two months, his father filed complaints with the
National Human Rights Commission and the International Committee of
the Red Cross (No. 200847). However, to date there has been no news
of his son's whereabouts.

9. As the Asian Legal Resource Centre has stressed in other
statements to the sixty-first session of the Commission, the massive
violation of all human rights in Nepal, including the rights of the
child, is occurring because of a total breakdown in the rule of law
there. Under the circumstances, it is very difficult to produce
recommendations to counteract such violence. As noted in a separate
submission, what is the possibility of making meaningful suggestions
to the international community when there are no longer any
mechanisms within Nepal through which human rights can be protected?
Given these conditions, the many international conventions to which
Nepal is a party, including the Convention on the rights of the
Child, are of little or no significance. So it is with this caveat
that the Asian Legal Resource Centre urges that

a. The Commission should pay special attention to the gross acts of
torture, forced disappearance, killing and other violence committed
against children by the security forces in Nepal, including those
incidents described above, in particular through the Committee on the
Rights of the Child.

b. The Commission should create an international alert on the human
rights situation in Nepal, whereby the situation in the country can
be monitored constantly and reported upon to other agencies to permit
a rapid response.

c. Neighbouring states and key international agencies, such as India
and the European Union respectively, should raise the deteriorating
security situation in the country as a key issue for discussion at
the Security Council and in other relevant gatherings, with a view to
active and speedy intervention.

d. International humanitarian agencies must reconsider their current
activities with a view to keeping abreast of the rapidly worsening
conditions in Nepal and concentrating on necessary steps for
protection of fundamental rights there.

Link (RTF):
http://www.alrc.net/doc/doc/chr61/ALRC-13-
Violence_against_children_in_Nepal.rtf

Link (PDF):
http://www.alrc.net/doc/doc/chr61/pdf/51-ALRC-13-
Violence_against_children_in_Nepal.pdf

***

About ALRC The Asian Legal Resource Centre holds general consultative
status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
The Hong Kong-based group seeks to strengthen and encourage positive
action on legal and human rights issues at local and national levels
throughout Asia.

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