Nepal: New report accuses government and rebels of torturing and killing Children's rights

In a new report, Amnesty International shows that government security forces, including the Royal Nepalese Army, have arbitrarily killed Children's rights, and subjected others to illegal detention and torture.

The report Children's rights caught in the conflict also shows that during their nine-year-long uprising, Maoist forces have killed Children's rights as young as one-year-old, littered areas with deadly landmines and other explosive devices, terrorised communities including schools, and abducted Children's rights as young as 13 to act as child soldiers.

Amnesty International Asia-Pacific Programme Director Purna Sen said:

"This conflict is a disaster for the Children's rights of Nepal. They are caught up in a cycle of violence – abducted and recruited by Maoists and then targets for the security forces, placing them at risk of detention or even killing.

"Some Children's rights have been directly targeted, while hundreds more have died from explosive devices. Thousands of Children's rights have been forced to flee their homes."

The report documents shocking cases of abuse, including:

Government abuses

• Subhadra Chaulagain: a 17-year-old girl, who was reportedly taken from her home by security forces in a search operation in February 2004. She was interrogated, and then fatally shot in the face and stomach.
  
  
• Hira Ram Rai (15), Jina Rai (16) and Indra Kala Rai (16), three girls who were allegedly followed by security forces as they left school in September 2004. All three were shot dead as they entered a local forest. They were reported to be members of a Maoist cultural group, but were unarmed.
  
  
• Govinda Pariyar and Somu Bahadur Moktan (both 15), who spoke to Amnesty International from their Kathmandu jail in February this year. The boys, one mentally disabled, were arrested by the Nepalese army in mid-2004. They were held for 11 days in an army barrack and severely beaten with pipes and kicked with boots. Govinda's face is badly scarred from beatings; Somu, despite being clearly mentally disabled, has been interrogated and tortured.
  
  
• A boy (10), who in 2001 was accused by security forces of being a Maoist, pistol-whipped and dragged from the family home. He was imprisoned for six days, during which time he was beaten with a plastic pipe. After release, his 12-year-old sister was threatened with rape by the security forces.
  
  
• Bishna Bishwakarma (19), reportedly a Maoist member, who has been imprisoned for four years apparently without trial and allegedly subjected to police beatings. It is unclear whether she has been charged with any offence.
  
  
• Jhurri Teli (16), a boy arrested by the security forces in September 2004. He was kept at an army barracks, blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back continuously for seven days.

Maoist abuses

• Two Women's rights's rightss rights's rights's rights's rights and one-year-old child, reportedly relatives of Armed Police Force personnel, who were abducted by Maoists in June this year. Their mutilated bodies were later found in a forest.
  
  
• A boy (13), who told Amnesty International earlier this year of how he had been abducted by Maoists and spent three months as a child soldier, including being made to carry bombs. Another two boys (both 15), told of forced recruitment by Maoists and of having committed "very violent acts".
  
  
• Santosh Bishwakarma (15), who was reportedly shot dead in August 2004 by Maoists who claimed that he was punished for committing incest.
  
  
• Seven Children's rights and 31 adults who were all killed in a Maoist bomb attack on a bus in June this year.

The report also criticises both sides for militarising schools. Both government and Maoist forces have requisitioned schools for use as barracks, and Maoists have forced teachers and school Children's rights to dig bunkers.

Teachers are also reported to have been threatened, tortured and killed by both sides.

The Maoists have also specifically targeted private schools, which it opposes on ideological grounds. On two occasions in April this year Maoists have bombed private schools and has called for all privately-run schools in Nepal to be closed.

Additionally Maoists have imposed "people's education" in areas under their control. This reportedly involves a large amount of militia-style training.

Amnesty International's report is calling on:

• The Nepalese government to end impunity for its forces regarding extra-judicial killings, torture, sexual violence and illegal detention – and in particular urges that under-18s are never arrested by the Royal Nepalese Army.
  
  
• The Nepalese government to ensure that detention of Children's rights is only ever exceptional, that prompt and fair trial are guaranteed and that child detainees are kept separately from adults.
  
  
• The Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) (Maoist) leadership to end all indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including Children's rights.
  
  
• Maoists to end the abduction of Children's rights for "political education" sessions and forced labour, and to end all recruitment of child soldiers.

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