C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 001509

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SA/INS, DRL, PLEASE PASS TO USAID/ANE
LONDON FOR POL/GURNEY, NSC FOR MILLARD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/06/2013
TAGS: PHUM KCOR NP PINR GON
SUBJECT: NEPAL'S NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
CRITICIZED FOR CORRUPTION, MAOIST SUPPORT


Classified By: Ambassador Michael E. Malinowski for Reasons 1.5 (b,d).


1. (C) Summary. National Human Rights Commission member
Indira Rana (please protect) has made serious allegations
against some of her fellow members, accusing them of gender
discrimination, corruption and bias in favor of the Maoists.
In a July 31 meeting, Rana claimed that Sushil Pyakurel, an
active member of Nepal's main communist party, maintains
close contact with Maoist political leader Baburam Bhattarai
and uses his position within the Commission to provide
information to the insurgents. Rana also complained that the
Commission is channeling funds from some European donors to
leftist, CPN-UML-affiliated NGOs as well as using the money
for personal benefit. Rana's complaints echo those by other
respected members of Nepal's political elite who believe some
of the many European donors are too sympathetic to the
Maoists. End Summary.


2. (C) On July 31, PolOff met with Indira Rana, one of five
members appointed by the King to sit on the National Human
Rights Commission. In June, Rana had publicly aired her
disagreements with the other members of the Commission and
accused them of corruption, gender discrimination and
ineffectiveness. According to Rana, the Commission Chairman
and former Supreme Court judge, Nayan Bahadur Khatri, is now
"in the pocket" of fellow Commission member Sushil Pyakurel
former head of INSEC, a Nepali human rights NGO, and a leader
of the Communist Party of Nepal - United Marxist Leninist
(CPN-UML). Rana alleged that Pyakurel has offered Khatri a
Cabinet-level appointment should there be a UML-led
government. Rana suggested that, along with Dr. Gauri
Shankar Lal Das, these three members tightly control the
activities of the Human Rights Commission. The fifth member,
Kapil Shrestha, has been sidelined, with his responsibilities
curtailed, as a result of a sex scandal last year.


3. (C) Rana claimed that Pyakurel is extremely sympathetic to
the Maoist cause, maintains close contact with Maoist
political leader Baburam Bhattarai, and uses his position
wit

hin the Commission to provide information to the
insurgents. According to Rana, in late 2002, Pyakurel
harbored a Maoist leader who had been charged by the
Government of Nepal with serious crimes. She claimed that,
after the Maoist was released on one charge and before the
police could re-arrest him on the other two charges, Pyakurel
himself drove to the courthouse, picked up the insurgent and
sheltered him in the Human Rights Commission building
overnight. The next day, he drove the Maoist leader to the
house of a UML Member of Parliament. Rana suspects that
Pyakurel has assisted other Maoist leaders, although he has
not again used the Commission building, perhaps because, Rana
said, she confronted him about the issue.


4. (C) Over the following months, Rana became increasingly
vocal about the absence of administrative procedures and
oversight within the Commission. According to Rana, Pyakurel
colluded with the Commission's Secretary on hiring staff for
the new Commission. Together they rigged the examination
process in order to hire family members and UML-affiliated
contacts. As a result, the staff is incompetent, Rana said,
and the Commission has had to hire computer and
administrative trainers -- the same people that had applied
for staff positions and been rejected.


5. (C) Rana also witnessed impropriety with the Commission's
handling of donor funds. Rana claimed that all donor
funding, but particularly that from Norway and Denmark, had
been channeled only to UML-affiliated NGOs and also had been
used for personal profit by other Commission members. In
particular, she cited a Norwegian project worth USD 25,000 to
advance the status of dalit, or low-caste, members of
society. Led by Kapil Shrestha, the project produced no
results, she said, noting that Shrestha did not even provide
a written report of the project.


6. (C) Rana also believed that Pyakurel Lal Das and Khatri
have used donor funding for extensive traveling. She
mentioned that the new Secretary to the Commission, Kadar
Poudel had gone abroad nine times in the past nine months.
The other members of the Commission regularly spend weekends
at nice hotels for so-called "retreats," she said. Rana also
mentioned that Pyakurel allocates himself 10,000 Rupees per
diem for his travel within Nepal as compared with the
standard GON per diem of 1,000 Rupees. After Rana questioned
the appropriateness of this higher per diem, Pyakurel claimed
that, as a politician, he must "wine and dine" political
contacts and, therefore, required more per diem. Rana also
noted that, before working as head of INSEC, Pyakurel was
poor. Now, however, he owns two homes in Kathmandu as well
as two rental properties, she said.


7. (C) After months of observing and criticizing this
behavior, Rana said she became increasingly sidelined by the
Commission's Chairman, Pyakurel and Lal Das. Her
responsibilities have been taken over by Pyakurel and she is
no longer invited to meetings nor is she permitted to see the
Commission's budget or minutes of the meetings. Rana's
responsibility for overseeing the prison system is now
conducted by Pyakurel Rana claimed that Pyakurel uses his
visits to prisons in order to meet jailed Maoist cadres and
later provides information to the Maoist leadership on their
status. Pyakurel also uses his visits to RNA and police
posts to provide sensitive information to the Maoist
leadership, she claimed.


8. (U) Biographic note: Indira Rana is a well-respected
lawyer and dynamic human rights activist. She received an
MPH in Law and Population from Harvard University. Rana has
served the Government of Nepal for 35 years in many
capacities, including Secretary to the Judicial Council and
Judicial Service Commission, District Court Judge and as an
advocate to the Supreme Court. She is an activist for human
rights and women's empowerment and has traveled extensively
for conferences related to women, law and criminal justice.
Rana was a member of the international election observation
team for the 1999 Presidential election in Sri Lanka. She is
unmarried and her English is very good. End Biographic note.


9. (C) Comment. Indira Rana's reports on the Commission's
misuse of donor funds and Maoist sympathies could be
motivated, in part, by her resentment at being marginalized
and isolated. However, her allegations are consistent with
other reports Post has received. In fact, the Commission to
Investigate Abuses of Authority is examining a case against
Pyakurel for improper use of funds. Sadly, many of the other
self-proclaimed human rights organizations in Nepal suffer
from similar problems of corruption, nepotism and political
partisanship.


10. (C) Comment Continued: The National Human Rights
Commission, encouraged and supported by donor countries since
its inception in 2000, appears to be totally dysfunctional.
Its bias toward the Maoists has made it unsuitable as a
mediating institution in peace talks between the government
and Maoists. Post is particularly concerned that European
donor governments could harm the peace process by channeling
funds through organizations like the Human Rights Commission
without providing sufficient oversight to ensure that the
funds are not used in direct support of the Maoists. In
fact, Post has learned that certain European donors are
pushing the GON to authorize the Commission to monitor all
violations of the cease-fire code of conduct. While such a
monitoring mechanism is probably a good idea, Post does not
believe the Commission can effectively or fairly play this
role. Rana's complaints echo those by other respected
members of Nepal's political elite who believe many European
donors are too sympathetic to the Maoists (septel), giving
the rebels a false sense of international acceptability that
aggravates their aggressiveness in talks with the GON. End
Comment.
MALINOWSKI