Nepal 'On Brink of Catastrophe' - Amnesty
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WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb 18 (OneWorld) - Nepal stands on the ''brink of disaster'' following King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah's Feb. 1 military coup and an ensuing wave of human rights violations under a palace-decreed state of emergency, according to Amnesty International.
Gyanendra seized power from an elected government with support from the Royal Nepal Army, saying this was necessary to restore political stability and defeat a nine-year Maoist insurgency. Nearly 11,000 people are said to have died in that conflict, in which the Maoists have vowed to overthrow the monarchy and establish a socialist republic. Amnesty International's secretary general, Irene Khan, decried security forces' roundups and detention of political leaders, students, human rights activists, journalists, and labor union officials. While two former prime ministers were released with other political figures in a bid to ease tension, more continue to be arrested, she said. ''The longstanding conflict between the Maoists and the armed forces has destroyed human rights in the countryside. Now, the state of emergency is destroying human rights in the urban areas, taking the country to the brink of disaster,'' she said Thursday at a news conference in New Delhi, India after a six-day fact-finding mission to Nepal, where she met the king. ''Those who were exposing and condemning the excesses of the armed forces and the atrocities of the Maoists are now being muzzled,'' Khan said. ''This will only serve to fuel impunity and reinforce the ongoing cycle of human rights abuses by both the security forces and the Maoists, with disastrous consequences for the ordinary people of Nepal.'' Nepalese officials have said their clampdown was necessary and will prove temporary. The country's Army chief pledged Wednesday to uphold human rights amid the crackdown. ''Necessary action has been taken against those involved in violation of human rights regardless of their ranks and will continue,'' state-run RSS media quoted Gen. Pyar Jung Thapa as saying. Amnesty International called on the government to restore and protect human rights and to submit security personnel to independent investigation and civilian prosecution for alleged abuses. It called on the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPNM) to stop targeting civilians for abuse and killing and to respect international humanitarian law. And it urged both sides to agree on a mutual human rights accord. Khan urged the United Nations to open an office of its human rights commissioner in Nepal, and the United States and other donor governments to suspend military aid to Nepal's government to pressure it to change its policies. ''As major allies of Nepal and key providers of military aid, the U.S., U.K., and India play a critical role. They have been outspoken about the restoration of democracy. They need to give equal importance to ensuring the Nepalese government guarantees respect for human rights,'' she said. U.S., Indian, and European Union officials have said they are reviewing their assistance to Nepal. Washington, New Delhi, London, and other donor capitals have condemned the coup. Denmark on Tuesday became the first country to suspend its aid program. But are some of these donors also culpable in the crisis? So says Foreign Policy in Focus analyst and University of California, Santa Cruz lecturer Conn Hallinan. Gyanendra's coup, he said, stems from ''a fantasy that the government can win a military victory over the CPNM. It is an illusion fueled in large part by an avalanche of modern weaponry plus military training that has poured into the country from India, the U.S., and Britain.'' Those countries have armed Nepal's Royalist forces with helicopter gun ships and tens of thousands of rifles and automatic weapons, according to Hallinan. The army's ranks have swelled to 73,000, from 50,000 in 2001, and are expected to reach 80,000 next year. ''While the insurgent forces are small--4,000 core soldiers and about 15,000 supporters--virtually no independent observers believe the central government can defeat them, because the roots of the war are in the social and economic poverty of the nation,'' he said. Nepal is the 12th poorest country in the world and according to the World Bank, 42 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, he said, adding that the Asian Development Bank estimated that the annual national income amounts to just 241 dollars per person. The Bush administration has called on Gyanendra to restore democracy. But it sees the Nepal insurgency as a domino in its international war on terrorism and has argued that the country could become a ''failed state'' and haven for terrorists, Hallinan said. The State Department has placed the CPNM on a terrorism watch list. ''There are suspicions in the region that American involvement is also part of an overall U.S. plan to ring China with military bases and regimes friendly, or at least beholden, to Washington,'' Hallinan said. To break the bloody stalemate between Maoists and Royalists, some Scandinavian governments and the Asian Human Rights Commission have proposed U.N. intervention and independent mediation. In a recent statement, the Hong Kong-based rights group said, ''If no serious intervention is made at this stage by the United Nations and the international community to stop the escalation of violence, a bloodbath could easily take place while the movement of the people and news is restricted.'' The Maoists would favor such a step, Hallinan said, but the U.S. and India have opposed the idea. ''The former do so because of the Bush administration's reflexive hostility to the world body,'' he said. ''The Indians, because they fear external mediation might be used to address their own insurgent movements and the ongoing crisis in Kashmir.'' Kashmir is subject to a dispute between India and Pakistan that has run for more than half a century. Each country administers a portion of the territory, divided by a heavily armed line of control. |
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