KATHMANDU: The US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday urged both Nepalese soldiers and Maoist rebels to stop killing civilians caught up in their bloody conflict.

"In Nepal's escalating civil war, civilians in contested areas are executed, abducted and tortured both by government forces and Maoist rebels," HRW said in a 102-page report.

"Military aid providers and donor countries must insist that both sides end attacks on civilians, conclude a human rights accord allowing independent monitoring, and cooperate with the work of the National Human Rights Commission.

"Refusal to provide shelter to the rebels puts villagers at risk from Maoists who are ruthless in their punishments, while providing such support leaves them vulnerable to reprisal attacks from state security forces," it said.

"Neither the government nor the Maoists appear particularly concerned with the protection of civilians while they fight this dirty war," said Brad Adams, HRW executive director for Asia.

"If they want to have any legitimacy in Nepal or with the international community, they need to end attacks on civilians," he said. "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Civilians Struggle to Survive in Nepal's Civil War" documents killings by each side. Both sides also engage in regular intimidation and extortion, it says.

The Maoists levy a tax on villagers and travellers, while the government attempts to isolate the Maoists' main soldiers to engage in extortion and blackmail, the report says.

The New York-headquartered group said the rebels use children to gather intelligence on troop movements. "Rampant abuses have created a climate of intense fear in Nepal's villages," said Adams.

The report relates how the main actors of civil society have been marginalized - accused alternately of being closet sympathizers of the Maoists and threatened and killed for failing to back the rebels. -AFP