Follow up to case NPL 310106_Release

The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) has received new information on the following situation in Nepal.

New Information

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by the Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), a member of the SOS-Torture network, about the release of all the persons who had been arrested in the events of January 2006.

Brief description of the situation

According to the information received, violent repression of demonstrations, mass arrests, beatings, and ill-treatment in detention against political leaders, journalists and human rights defenders were reported from 17 January 2006 to 31 January 2006.

According to the information received, on 17 January 2006, the Nepalese Government imposed a curfew from 9:00 pm to 4:00 am, at night, and a total ban on demonstrations, rallies and sit-in programs in Kathmandu and Lalitpur Districts. Similar curfews and prohibitive orders were imposed throughout the country in the name of maintaining security in the country.

The curfew and prohibitive orders were allegedly aimed at disrupting the planned peaceful protest organised by a seven-party political opposition alliance on 20 January 2006 in Kathmandu, calling for the establishment of democracy and the end of Nepal’s autocratic regime, and protesting against the municipal elections scheduled for 8 February 2006.

From 19 January 2006 till 20 January 2006, the Armed Police Forces (APF) and plainclothes security forces arrested nearly 100 leaders of political parties and human rights activists from their houses. Searches of their houses were also carried out.

On 20 January 2006, the curfew was imposed from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm. Then onwards curfew was imposed for about five days from 11:00 pm to 4:00 am in Kathmandu. It was lifted on 23 January 2006.

Following the disruption of the large-scale demonstrations that had been planned on 20 January 2006, thousands of protestors reportedly took the streets of Kathmandu on 21 January 2006. Subsequently, the police intervened to break up the demonstration and dozens of demonstrators were injured along with some policemen in the clash that ensued. Dozens of leaders and activists, thought to number over 200, were reportedly arrested. The police charged the demonstrators using batons and fired tear-gas shells to disperse the crowd in the New Road and Basantapur areas. The Armed Police Force and the Royal Nepalese Army were also deployed. Journalists who were attempting to collect information and monitor the demonstration were manhandled by security personnel.

According to INSEC, 1,243 people were arrested between 19 January 2006 and 25 January 2006 and, as of 26 January 2006, 848 remained detained, 393 were released and 2 were under house arrest. Among other, the persons arrested were mainly from the Nepali Congress (142), the Nepali Congress (Democratic) (85), UML (162), Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-ML) (6), the Nepal People Front (42), the Nepal Worker and Peasant Party (3), All Nepal National Free Students’ Union (ANNFSU) (80), the Nepal Student Union (61), the Nepal Student Union (Democratic) (6) and General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) (3). Nine journalists were also arrested.

Some of those arrested were given detention order for 90 days under the Public Security Act. Family members were only allowed to visit twice in a week during office hours. However, friends and distant family members were not allowed to visit them. The detainees would be provided low quality of food and sanitation.

On 26 January 2006, over two hundred political activists were again arrested during demonstrations during a nationwide general strike that had been called by the democratic alliance in Nepal. During the protests, the security forces used excessive force against the peaceful demonstrators that injured dozens of people.

Remarks

OMCT wishes to thank all of the individuals and organizations that have taking action as a response to the urgent appeal and have written to the Nepalese authorities. No further action is currently required on your part concerning this case.

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Geneva, 2 February 2007