Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06KATHMANDU1578
2006-06-19 13:35:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kathmandu
Cable title:  

NEPAL ARMY SHARES ITS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL REPORT

Tags:  PHUM PGOV MASS NP 
pdf how-to read a cable
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C O N F I D E N T I A L KATHMANDU 001578 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/19/2016
TAGS: PHUM PGOV MASS NP
SUBJECT: NEPAL ARMY SHARES ITS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL REPORT
FOR GENEVA

REF: A. KATHMANDU 1376


B. 05 KATHMANDU 1240

Classified By: CDA Larry Schwartz. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L KATHMANDU 001578

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/19/2016
TAGS: PHUM PGOV MASS NP
SUBJECT: NEPAL ARMY SHARES ITS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL REPORT
FOR GENEVA

REF: A. KATHMANDU 1376


B. 05 KATHMANDU 1240

Classified By: CDA Larry Schwartz. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
--------------


1. (C) The Nepal Army (NA) will present its human rights
report to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva
during the upcoming session. The Army is aware that it has
problems with human rights abuse and alternates between
trying to explain the reasons for violations and trying to
address those violations so as to improve its record and
image. According to the NA report, the NA is taking action
to protect human rights and to punish human rights abusers.
The Army claims to have tried many cases and convicted 156 NA
personnel for human rights violations, although it does not
list what those violations were. Five cases are currently
under Court Martial. The NA regularly points out that Maoist
atrocities continue despite the cease-fire and peace talks.
End Summary.

Nepal Army Shares Human Rights Report
--------------


2. (C) Colonel Dharma Baniya, Chief of the Nepal Army Human
Rights Cell, shared with Emboff the NA's human rights report,
which will be presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva
during the upcoming session. The Army compiled information
regarding alleged disappearances, detainees, internally
displaced people, and human rights abuses attributed to its
actions to respond, in part, to the United Nations Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report on
human rights abuses released in May (Ref A). The report said
the NA had furnished 2,995 answers to 3,837 cases of alleged
human rights violations presented to it.

Extrajudicial Killings and Disappearances
--------------


3. (C) The NA report stated that it had provided
clarification on 23 out of 24 alleged cases of extrajudicial
killings and that seven NA personnel were punished in these
cases. The report also asserted that there was "no policy of
enforced and involuntary disappearance in the Nepalese Army."
It explained that the high number of disappearance cases
arose from six factors: a lack of proper documentation by the

NA, the number of aliases used by the Maoists, unrecorded
migration to India and other countries, Maoists going to
India for treatment and dying of injuries there without
record, the use of civilians as human shields by the Maoists,
and Maoist underreporting of deaths in combat operations. An
appendix to the report lists the number of disappearance
cases alleged by various governmental and non-governmental
organizations and the number still under investigation.
According to the report, there were no new cases of
disappearances involving the NA since the last Human Rights
Council Session in March-April 2005.

Nepal Army Reaction to OHCHR Report
--------------


4. (C) The report stated that the NA formed a high-level
investigation team, headed by a Brigadier General, to
investigate the allegations made in the OHCHR report released
May 16 about the ill-treatment and disappearances of
detainees from the Maharajgung barracks from
September-December 2003. The NA report noted that two
high-level task forces already investigated the cases, and
that the whereabouts of 5 of the 49 alleged disappeared in
the OHCHR report were already released to the Nepal Police.
The NA report appears to attempt to explain away the OHCHR
report by stating, "the figure indicated in the press
statement cannot be taken as accurate and clearly exhibits
the inevitable confusion in cases of disappearance."

Detainees And Internally Displaced People
--------------



5. (C) The report stated that, at present, there were no
detainees in any NA military barracks. According to the
report, the NA arrested 4,648 people (during an unspecified
time frame) at the request of the civilian authorities and
held them in barracks. Of these people, 2,826 were released
to their families and 1,822 were handed over to the Nepal
Police. The NA claimed that the military was not involved in
any violation of human rights outside of the armed conflict
with the Maoists, including during the People's movement this
Spring. The report touched on internally displaced people in
Nepal due to the conflict, blaming most of these
displacements on the Maoists. The report listed a figure of
15,406 internally displaced people in Nepal.

The Nepal Army is Making Progress
--------------


6. (C) The report detailed the progress made by the NA since
the last session of the Human Rights Commission in
March-April 2005. The report claimed that five Courts
Martial were currently underway for NA personnel accused of
human rights violations in the past year. The NA conducted
trainings and seminars on human rights and the law of armed
conflict. The NA stated that they had given "unfettered"
access to human rights groups, such as OHCHR-Nepal. (Note:
While OHCHR has been given access to barracks and places of
detention, it has complained of not having access to Court
Martials and investigations. End Note.) Also, the NA issued
an "intra Army Human Rights Action Plan," which would bar
personnel found guilty of human rights violations from taking
part in UN Peace Keeping operations and foreign training
courses. The NA has punished 156 NA personnel for human
rights violations, with punishments ranging from providing
compensation to families of victims to imprisonment of the
perpetrator. The Army referred two rape cases to civilian
courts for prosecution.

Nepal Army Claims Maoists Atrocities Continue
--------------


7. (C) Army officers often express their frustration that
Maoist atrocities seem to go unnoticed, while international
attention focuses on army violations. The NA report
contained a list of Maoist atrocities allegedly committed
since the beginning of the conflict in 1996; a list of Maoist
activities from the bombing of a bus in Chitwan District in
June 2005 (Ref B) to continuing abductions and extortion in
the countryside. An appendix to the report listed Maoist
atrocities reported to the NA from April 28-June 10: eight
killings, 23 abductions, eight explosions, 37 cases of
looting, 20 threats, three beatings, and four cases of arson.


Nepal Army Committed to Human Rights
--------------


8. (C) The report stresses that the NA is dedicated to
upholding human rights and international humanitarian law.
It once again states its intent to upgrade the Human Rights
Cell of the NA to a Human Rights Directorate, commanded by a
Brigadier General and containing its own legal division. The
NA also plans to establish human rights sub-cells at the
battalion and company levels. The report admitted that the
NA had made mistakes involving human rights in the past, but
that these were not policy driven. The report claimed that
human rights violators have always been held accountable for
their misdeeds and that the NA continued to investigate
outstanding cases.

Comment
--------------


9. (C) Although the progress on human rights issues cite in
the NA report is encouraging, the NA has a long way to go.
The Army recognizes the international community's concern,
but it clearly chafes at the belief that the Army was held to
account while it was ordered to fight an insurgency that is
seemingly held to a much lesser standard. The international

community must shine the spotlight on continuing Maoist
atrocities, even while holding the NA responsible for
upholding international standards of human rights.
SCHWARTZ