Joint Letter
to Prachanda
By Human Rights Organisations
22 May 2005
hrw.org
Pushpa Kamal Dahal (also known as Prachanda)
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
Nepal
Dear Pushpa Kamal Dahal,
The undersigned organizations are writing to you in light of a number
of statements you have made over the last few weeks regarding the observance
of international human rights and humanitarian law by members of the
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). While we welcome this declared readiness
to comply with your legal obligations under internationally recognized
rules of war, an ongoing wave of human rights abuses by Maoist forces
over the last few months casts serious doubts on the credibility of
your repeated public commitments to that effect.
We note that in a press release of 5 April 2005 the CPN (Maoist) publicly
called for an international human rights monitoring presence in Nepal,
arguing that such a mission presence would bring to light the violations
by the Royal Nepal Army (RNA). At that time, the CPN (Maoist) also pledged
to cooperate fully with any such mission, if established, and to be
answerable for any human rights abuses by CPN (Maoist). On 12 April,
you personally reiterated the pledge to fully support and cooperate
with any human rights monitors. However, in an interview with Time magazine
published on 18 April, you suggested that your partys ideology
justified its abuses of international human rights and humanitarian
law standards and that these abuses were somehow differentand
less blameworthythan similar abuses by the RNA. Although you also
refer to efforts by the CPN (Maoist) to correct mistakes,
we are concerned by your lack of commitment to holding human rights
abusers properly to account.
Examples of the lack of commitment to human rights by the CPN (Maoist)
are plentiful. Maoist forces have staged several attacks recently on
civilians and civilian objects, including political activists and schools.
On 15 April, Maoists reportedly surrounded Bargadwa village, Somani
VDC, Ward 7 in Nawalparasi district and rounded up all villagers. They
then reportedly separated all the boys and men aged between 14 and 40
and summarily executed ten men and one boy. On 29 April, Maoist cadres
reportedly abducted and killed Dan Bahadur Shreebastav, chairman of
the Kapilvastu District Monitoring Committee, and on 9 May shot dead
Bhagwan Das Shrestha, chairman of the Chitwan District Monitoring Committee.
None of these victims were legitimate military targets.
Last month, Maoist forces also carried out a spate of attacks on schools
in the context of a two-week campaign for the closure of all private
schools initiated on 14 April 2005. Among the schools targeted were
a school in Nepalgunj, Banke district, on 17 April and another in Kalyanpur,
Chitwan district on 21 April. Three children were reportedly injured
when the Maoists threw a bomb at students at a school in Khara, Rukum
district, on 17 April. Hundreds of schools across the country remain
closed due to threats by Maoists. Furthermore, Maoist forces have regularly
abducted large numbers of students from schools for political indoctrination
and propaganda campaigns. In a recent example, reports from Salyan district
indicate that as many as 200 students from remote villages were abducted
around 17 May. None of these targets can be described as military
they were all civilians and civilian objects the targeting of which
is prohibited under international humanitarian law.
We are also concerned that Maoist forces have abducted, tortured and
killed civilians, whom they accused of spying and other
crimes, and security force personnel whom they had captured. Among recent
cases is Lila Singh, a 23-year-old karate practitioner from Mahendranagar,
Kanchanpur district who was abducted from her home on 29 April allegedly
on suspicion of spying. To date, her relatives have not heard anything
about her fate or whereabouts. On 16 May 2005, Shanker Sarki, a soldier,
who had returned home from Congo where he had served in the United Nations
Peacekeeping Forces, was abducted from his home in Dhangadi, Kailali
district by 12 armed Maoist cadres in civilian dress and killed. Torture
and extrajudicial executions are similarly prohibited, under international
law, in all circumstances.
As you know, further to an agreement reached between the Government
of Nepal and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR) on 11 April 2005, OHCHR is establishing an office in Nepal to
monitor and investigate abuses of human rights by both parties to the
conflict. We see this as an important opportunity to improve the rapidly
deteriorating human rights situation in the country.
We urge you to take all measures necessary to comply with your obligations
under international humanitarian law and to undertake to respect applicable
international standards regarding protection of human rights. Specifically,
we call on to publicly to prohibit CPN (Maoist) forces from engaging
in targeting civilians and civilian objects and carrying out indiscriminate
attacks, arbitrary killings, torture and other ill-treatment, taking
hostages and recruiting child soldiers. We also call on you to remove
from their post any CPN (Maoist) cadres who are responsible for human
rights abuses. As an important step in this undertaking, we call on
you publicly to pledge full cooperation with the OHCHR mission, to pledge
to uphold the rights set out in the Human Rights Accord drafted by the
National Human Rights Commission in 2004 and to instruct all (CPN) Maoist
forces to do the same.
With reference to your interview of 18 April, we remind you that the
civil war in Nepal falls under the purview of international humanitarian
law. Among the fundamental protections during internal armed conflicts
are those contained in Common Article Three in the four Geneva Conventions
of 1949, regarding the treatment of persons taking no active part in
the hostilities. This article prohibits, among other things, summary
executions, torture and other ill-treatment, the taking of hostages,
and punishment without fair trial. Credible information indicates that
CPN (Maoist) forces routinely violate Common Article Three by engaging
in brutal and abusive activities against civilians and others not taking
active part in hostilities.
We point out that Common Article Three binds both states parties and
insurgent groups. Adherence is not based on reciprocity and one party
to the conflict cannot excuse its own violations of Common Article Three
on the basis that the other party to the conflict is also violating
it. The arguments set out in the interview published on 18 April that
RNA abuses outnumber abuses by your forces or that your
ideology justifies your actions in no way exempt you and your forces
from your obligations under international law.
We call on the CPN (Maoist) to begin immediately to establish mechanisms
for cooperation with the UN human rights monitoring mission, including
mechanisms to allow transparent and independent investigations by the
UN teams in areas under (CPN) Maoist control. We urge you to ensure
that this message reaches every cadre in the ranks of the CPN (Maoist)
forces. It is only through a transparent and engaged effort by both
sides to this conflict that Nepali civilians, who have borne the brunt
of this brutality, will have a chance for peace and justice.
The nine-year-old civil war in Nepal has already claimed over 12,000
lives and injured thousands more. It has resulted in massive displacement
of people and gross human rights abuses. Both sides to the conflict
have systematically flaunted their responsibilities to protect civilians
and captured combatants. Yet each side is responsible for the conduct
of its own forces and cannot justify abuses by pointing to the poor
conduct of the other side.
We call on you to demonstrate that the forces under your command will
respect their international obligations and cooperate in full with UN
monitors trying to protect the rights of the people of Nepal.
We look forward to your immediate response.
Yours sincerely,
Brad Adams
Asia Director
Human Rights Watch
Purna Sen
Director, Asia & Pacific Program
Amnesty International
Nicholas Howen
Secretary-General
International Commission of Jurists