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 UN official accuses police of extrajudicial deaths

 By a Post Reporter

 KATHMANDU, Feb 14 - A high level United Nations (UN) official today accused the police force of  resorting to extrajudicial killings in the process of controlling the four-year-old Maoist insurgency.

 "I am concerned by reports and information about the number of people who have been extrajudicially  executed, and at least in one instance massacred by the police force," said Asma Jahangir, UN  Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions after touring Nepal for the past  nine days.

 "Numerous people have disappeared following arrests or held in custody. These abuses appear to  have been perpetrated with impunity," Jahangir told reporters today on completion of her fact finding  mission.

 She will report back about the situation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission which is  scheduled to meet in March.

 "I very clearly see that extrajudicial killings have taken place where the police have not been made  accountable and when that begins to happen it increases people’s resentment," she said.

 Since the Maoist rebels began waging a guerrilla war from the hills of midwest and central region  exactly four years ago, over 1100 people have been killed.

 According to the last official count, of the total number of people who have succumbed to the

 insurgency, over 800 are Maoists, about a 100 police personnel while the remaining 200 are "common  men" - a good number of Nepali Congress (NC) workers forming the last category.

 Despite the claim by the government that all the people killed by the police bullets are Maoist rebels,  human rights groups and opposition parties have repeatedly accused the government of  indiscriminately killing innocent people and later calling them Maoists.

 "I do not get the feeling the (Nepal) government has grasped the magnitude and the real picture of the  problem because everybody who is killed is called a Maoist and that is not correct," Jahangir said.

 "For them who die is simply Maoist."

 During her stay, she visited Nepalgunj and Gorkha, gathering information, meeting local people, political representatives, judges and journalists.

 "I have several lists of the number of people killed in this manner. We are in the process of looking at the incidents and have to confirm in our own manner the authenticity of this list before we come up with a number," she said when asked to give out a figure of extrajudicial deaths in Nepal.

 She also met leaders of various political parties including the ruling Nepali Congress (NC).

 "Apart from NC, there was not a single party we met that disputed extrajudicial killings had taken place ... in fact these parties had their own list of party members killed by the police," she said.

 She said she would be recommending in her report that the government of Nepal should consider inviting working groups on torture and arbitrary detention.

 "When these visits begin to take place, there will be more focus on human rights situation," she said. "Hopefully the recommendations will be implemented, otherwise there will be more visits."

 Other recommendations would include strengthening the legal and judiciary system, making the investigation process more professional, training of the police force and formation of a human rights commission.

( This is taken from Kathmandu post of 15^th of February )