NEPAL: CEASEFIRE SEES INCREASE IN TORTURE CLAIMS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KATHMANDU 000623

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SA/INS
STATE ALSO PASS USAID - ANE/SA
LONDON FOR POL - GURNEY

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/03/2012
TAGS: PHUM EAID SOCI PGOV PTER NP
SUBJECT: NEPAL: CEASEFIRE SEES INCREASE IN TORTURE CLAIMS

Classified By: DCM ROBERT K. BOGGS. REASON: 1.5 (B,D).

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SUMMARY
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1. (C) Summary: PolOff and USAID Mission's Deputy Director
of Special Programs Office met with the program director of
the USAID-supported Center for Victims of Torture (CVICT) in
Biratnagar, Morang District, on March 27-28 to discuss the
center's operation since the January 29 cease fire between
Maoist insurgents and government forces. The center offers
legal and medical assistance, as well as psychological
counseling, to victims of the insurgency. An increasing
number of victims has approached the center since travel
restrictions were lifted after the ceasefire, and several
have filed torture-related charges against government
authorities. Women and children are among the worst-affected
by the conflict, but are underrepresented among CVICT's
clients. Victims of Maoist abuses are also underrepresented,
as many are too frightened to seek help. End summary.

CENTER SEES VICTIMS FROM BOTH SIDES
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2. (SBU) On March 27 and 28, PolOff and the Deputy Director
of Special Programs Office for the USAID Mission met with Dr.
Bidur Osti, Program Director of the USAID-supported Center
for Victims of Torture (CVICT) in the southern city of
Biratnagar, Morang District. Originally founded in the early
nineties to address torture as defined by the Convention
Against Torture (CAT),the center initially offered aid
primarily to victims of the police or other government
entities. As insurgency-related violence has escalated,
however, CVICT has expanded its activities to offer legal,
medical and counseling services to men and women victimized
by government forces and/or the Maoists, as well as
occasional victims of other crimes.


3. (U) USAID supports CVICT through a USD $600,000
cooperative agreement. The agreement covers medical and
psychosocial treatment for 500 torture victims at the
Biratnagar sub-center; twelve mobile clinics; six
fact-finding missions to investigate and report on incidents
of abuse; training for 100 medical professionals in the
examination, identification, documentation and reporting of
torture cases; and a facility in Kathmandu for shelter-based
treatment of female trauma victims. Under the program to
date, 93 torture survivors have received treatment at the
Biratnagar sub-center, and 231 have been treated by the
mobile clinics. A total of three fact-finding missions has
been conducted, while 100 medical professionals have
completed training.


4. (SBU) Osti reported that the center has been doing brisk
business, especially now that restrictions on travel have
been lifted as a result of the cease fire. The courtyard of
the small building that houses the center is regularly full
of victims waiting for their chance to see the doctors and
counselors that the center provides free of charge. Osti has
worked at the center for three years, and says that the
profile of victims has changed over time. While in the past
the center rarely saw victims of torture by the Maoists, the
number has increased dramatically, and the brutality of the
cases is very high. Cases perpetrated by the army, which
were almost unheard of three years ago, are now more numerous
as well.

FEW LEGAL CASES FILED
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5. (C) Very few of the victims pursue legal action, despite
the possibility of compensation of up to 100,000 NRs (1300
USD). According to the center's legal advisor, only about 10
percent of CVICT's clients file complaints. The large
majority of victims choose to avoid the possibility of
provoking additional harassment by accusing their torturers,
while those who do choose to file are often threatened,
pressured or bribed into withdrawing their cases. Though
CVICT offers medical and counseling services to victims of
both sides of the conflict, legal cases are filed only
against government perpetrators. Maoist violence does not
fall under the definition of torture in the CAT and, more
practically, Maoist perpetrators are both difficult to bring
to court and unlikely to pay any compensation.


6. (C) For many of the clients who puruse legal cases
despite threats against their persons and property, the goal
is psychological gratification more than monetary
compensation. According to Osti, security forces in the
region "operate with complete impunity." Soldier or police
who are accused of improper behavior are rarely punished by
their superiors, Osti said, and victims often want nothing
more than to see them declared guilty. Even in cases where
compensation is awarded by the courts, some victims choose
not to accept the money, especially since accepting it would
mean a trip to the police station to submit related
paperwork. "It's enough that I won the case," said one such
victim, according to Osti. "I don't want the money. I don't
ever want to see the police again."


7. (C) Stories from a few of the victims illustrate the
reasons for the fear and mistrust of at least some of the
police in the region. A journalist at the center had been
imprisoned for fourteen months during the nine-month State of
Emergency, apparently on suspicion of being a Maoist. No
charges were ever filed against him. He was at the center to
file a legal case against the Superintendent of Police (SP)
in another district, and had already been threatened with
violence by the SP in an attempt to force him to withdraw the
charges. An elderly villager who arrived at the center for
medical treatment had spent eleven months in jail in the same
district, also with no official charges or explanation. He
is filing a case against the same SP. The officer in
question has a history with CVICT, Osti said, charging that
when he was stationed in Chitwan, the SP was accused of a
brutal beating. He lost the case, and was forced to pay
compensation.

WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG WORST-AFFECTED
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8. (SBU) Most of the victims who seek assistance from CVICT
are men. Only about 12-15 percent of the center's clients
are women, despite estimates that 30 percent of torture
victims are women. Part of the reason for the disparity is
the difficulty faced by women traveling alone. More often,
however, female victims simply have a hard time convincing
their husbands that they need medical assistance. The
problem is compounded if a women seeks psychological
counseling, Osti said. "Women are just told that they are
lazy and don't want to work, and that is why they are trying
to get counseling. Psychosocial problems are just not
considered a health issue in our country, and especially not
for women."


9. (C) Though CVICT does not typically treat young children,
the center has treated a large number of Maoist cadres
between the ages of 14 and 18. Osti said he had no solid
evidence of organized recruitment of minors by the Maoists,
but he admits that the insurgency has had a devastating
effect on Nepal's children. In one illustrative incident in
Bandipur, central Tanahu district, a CVICT fact-finding
mission came across a 12-year-old boy drunk at 10 o'clock in
the morning. He told the CVICT team that he started drinking
a year ago, and now drinks every day. When asked why, the
boy replied that if the Maoists see him drunk, they will
think he is a "spoiled child" and not suitable for their
ranks. If the army sees him drunk, they will think he is not
a Maoist, and will leave him alone.


10. (SBU) In studies carried out in Nepalganj, Surkhet and
Dolakha, CVICT found that children had stopped playing
typical games like football and cricket, and instead
exclusively played "Army versus the Maoists." At least one
boy had cut his sister with a knife because she was cast as a
Maoist in their daily game. "If the cease fire holds, there
is a need for a massive program of psychosocial
rehabilitation," said Osti about the coming generation.
"Everything is about revenge for these kids."

LOCAL EFFECTS OF CEASE FIRE;
GON TOLERANCE AND GON OBSTRUCTIONS
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11. (SBU) For Osti, the most significant effect of the
recent cease fire has been the reduction in the amount of
terrorist violence around Biratnagar. Though incidents of
violence still occur, Osti says that many of the perpetrators
are actually hooligans. "They were here robbing and causing
trouble before the Maoists ever were, and they don't obey the
Maoist commanders," he said. Osti added that while there is
much hope that the cease fire and peace talks will succeed,
there is also a great deal of suspicion about the motives on
both sides of the negotiating table.

12. (U) Also as a result of the cease fire, travel
restrictions have been eliminated, and victims have been able
to move more freely. An increasing number have sought help
from the center in Biratnagar and from CVICT mobile clinics
set up in district headquarters around the country. The
clinics have had their share of problems, however. In one
case, a district prison authority asked CVICT to organize a
mobile clinic to treat prisoners who were released at the end
of the State of Emergency. As soon as the all-day clinic was
completed and the CVICT team left the area, however, the
authorities confiscated all of the medication that had been
handed out to the prisoners.


13. (C) The center has occasionally met with disapproval
from individual members of government, and has instituted a
secret filing system to protect the identities of their

SIPDIS
clients from authorities seeking to intimidate. In general,
however, the center enjoys the GON's tolerance and support by
many members. The reason is clear, according to Osti: about
one-third of elected officials are CVICT's former clients.

COMMENT
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14. (C) CVICT has a well-deserved reputation for neutrality
in treating victims of torture from both sides of the
conflict, but the sample of people seeking treatment at the
center in Biratnagar is not necessarily an accurate profile
of torture victims nationwide. The prevalence of alleged
victims of state violence seeking CVICT's help should not be
taken as a definitive indication that victims of Maoist
violence are fewer in number, or have been treated less
severely, any more than the prevalence of men indicates that
women and children have not suffered. On the contrary,
anecdotal evidence suggests that the brutality of Maoists in
the field has left many of their victims terrified and
unwilling to risk retaliation. CVICT's challenge under the
cease fire and in the future will be to reach those victims
who cannot or will not seek out assistance on their own.
MALINOWSKI