Keshab Thapa, a torture victim releasing a book ‘Combating Torture in Nepal’ in a program in Kathmandu, Monday, Jan 02 06. nepalnews.com/rh

Keshab Thapa, a torture victim releasing a book ‘Combating Torture in Nepal’ in a program in Kathmandu, Monday, Jan 02 06. nepalnews.com/rh
Human rights activists have called upon the government to declare torture as a criminal offense in order to end what they called the “culture of impunity.”

Addressing a function organised to launch a book entitled “Combating Torture in Nepal: Problems and Prospects” in the capital on Monday, advocate Rajendra Ghimire, who is associated with the Centre for Victims of Torture (CVICT), Nepal, said there was a need to treat torture as a criminal offense and make Nepali laws compatible with the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT).

Ghimire, who is also the co-author of the book, said national and international agencies, media and civil society at large needed to work in tandem to stop the practice of torture in the country.

Chairperson of CVICT Nepal and co-author of the book, Dr. Bhogendra Sharma, said torture had reached terrible proportions in the country. He said a survey conducted by CVICT in 1997 showed that some 73 percent of the inmates in Nepali prisons had been subject to torture. He said while countries like The Netherlands had built a “torture museum” to showcase methods of torture employed in the historical past, torture that was prevalent in medieval ages was still being practiced in police custody and army barracks in Nepal.

Saying that the international community, too, had failed to play an effective role in pressurizing both the parties in Nepal conflict to give up torture under any pretext, Dr. Sharma said the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Nepal should recommend international community to employ measures like economic sanctions if the Nepal government did not take immediate steps to end the widespread practice of torture within the country. He said OHCHR should also look at the needs of torture victims for treatment and counseling in a sensitive way.

Addressing the function, senior human rights officer at the UN OHCHR in Kathmandu, David Johnson, said torture is one of the most serious of all human rights violations. He said right to life and freedom from slavery are fundamental rights. Right against torture is the only right that can’t be violated even during the period of war including anti-terror operations.

Saying that Nepal was at the cross roads and beyond, Mr. Johnson said more and more people were becoming victims of the ten-year-old war in Nepal. Many young people have lost their parents or family members during the conflict and want to take revenge. “In such a situation, the cycle of violence is hard to break,” he said.

Recalling his two-year-long experience in South Africa, Mr. Johnson said entire generation was systematically dehumanized in that country. South Africa still has perhaps the highest ratio of homicide in the world. It is because an entire generation grew up under dehumanizing conditions, he added.

Johnson expressed hope that HMG/Nepal will accept to invite UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions to the country in 2006. Summary executions is a serious problem in Nepal, he said. He did not elaborate. Johnson further said lowering the number of arbitrary arrests will also lower the number of disappearances and torture. He said now there was the need to focus on the issue of accountability, to investigate and prosecute people who have been carrying out torture.

General Secretary of HimRights Nepal, Dr. Gopal Krishna Siwakoti, recalled how he was tortured during his student days for taking part in pro-democracy movement during the Panchayat days. He said there were several incidences of children being subject to torture while recruiting them as child soldiers. Referring to incidences in Guatemala and Chile, he said incidences like rape led to entire communities to displace in the middle of the conflict. Dr. Siwakoti said the state doesn’t need to bear any financial burden to eradicate torture. All it needs to do is to announce one fine morning that nobody will be subject to torture in the country from now onwards, and those responsible for carrying out torture will be held responsible, he added.

Chairman of Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC) — a leading human rights organisation in the country, Subodh Raj Pyakurel, said there was a need to hit at the “culture of torture” in the country as torture was a culturally accepted phenomenon in the Nepali society. Almost all arrests in Nepal are arbitrary arrests and all the detention centers in the country are also centers where torture is carried out, said Pyakurel. Women, children and dalit were the first victims of torture. For the state, it will be more cost effective to procure equipment like lie detector and train security personnel, which will also enhance national prestige rather than providing compensation to torture victims and finding ways and means illegally to conceal the practice of torture, he added.

President of National Human Rights Alliance, Gauri Pradhan, said there was something wrong in the basic training package of the police and military since the practice of torture was still widespread in these institutions. Referring to his conversations with senior security personnel, Pradhan asked, “Nepali police and army have earned name and fame by taking part in the UN peacekeeping operations around the world. But why do they employ torture back home?” He further said there was the need to educate children right from the schools and abolish the custom of corporal punishment to eradicate torture in the country.

Keshav Thapa, a torture victim, released the book in the function.

In their book, the authors Dr. Sharma and Ghimiore said the most common reason of torture in Nepal is to extort confessions from those being investigated by the police. Torture can also be inflicted to intimidate, to coerce, to seek revenge or simply to hide other corrupt practices. Security forces as well as Maoist rebels have been found employing torture against their opponents, the study says.

According to CVICT, incidences of torture have skyrocketed in the country after the launching of the Maoist insurgency nearly a decade ago. Data compiled by CVICT show that a total of 823 torture victims were treated by it in 1998. In 2004, the number reached over 3,100—marking more than four-fold increase in the number of torture victims who approached CVICT for treatment and counseling. The authors fear that thousands of others may have been left untreated.

“The overall situation of impunity is mainly responsible for increase in the tendency of torture in Nepal. Restoration of democracy, human rights and strict adherence to the notion of rule of law are prerequisites to stamp out torture from the country,” the authors said.