KATHMANDU: Nepal’s use of vigilante groups to protect villages from Maoist rebels has led to increasing civilian casualties, Amnesty International said on Wednesday in a report which also alleged “systematic and routine” torture by troops. In its response, the army said it would take action against any soldier found to be involved in human rights abuses and denied backing vigilantes.
Amnesty said the government and security forces supported the creation of “village defence forces” in February 2005 as part of an effort to stem the Maoist rebellion that has claimed around 12,000 lives since 1996.
“The creation of these village defence forces blurs the distinction between combatants and non-combatants, resulting in an increased number of civilian casualties,” said Purna Sen, Asia-Pacific programme director for Amnesty.
“Law enforcement must remain the responsibility of the state and not of vigilante groups.” Amnesty said civilians in the countryside, much of which is under Maoist control, faced a dual threat from the vigilantes and the rebels that includes forcible recruitment, beatings and sexual harassment of women.
It said violence by the vigilante groups caused 31 deaths and the burning of 708 homes in a one-week period in Kapilvastu district. The report said that despite King Gyanendra’s decision to lift a state of emergency in April, and pledges to respect human rights, “torture by the military is both systematic and routine.”
“Military officials who operate in an environment of complete impunity admitted to using ill-treatment to extract confessions.” The Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) said Amnesty’s allegations about the military’s support of vigilantes were not well founded.
“The accusation that the RNA has been involved in providing support to what Amnesty has termed village defence forces in its report is not well founded,” the army said in a statement.
“The RNA has, on the 26th of July 2005, made a public appeal to vigilante groups not to take the law into their hands by killing Maoists activists,” the statement said.
“Once again, we would like to call on people not to take the law into their own hands.”
The army also said it would take action against soldiers that abused human rights.
“As the RNA and its servicemen continue to combat Maoist terrorism, it would like to publicly state that strong measures will be taken against servicemen who are found to have been involved in human rights abuses,” the statement said.
The king in February sacked the government and assumed absolute power, saying politicians had failed to stem the Maoist revolt. The nation of 27 million people has seen stepped-up violence by the rebels since then, including a bus bombing which killed 38 civilians in June.
Maoist leader Prachanda later called that bombing a mistake and said the insurgents would not target civilians. However, Amnesty said they continue to do so.
“Despite claims from Maoist leaders that they will respect the Geneva Conventions, there is precious little evidence of this respect on the ground,” the report said.—AFP
