At least 12 Armed Police Force (APF) personnel were injured in a road accident in the far-western district of Kailali on Tuesday.
Reports quoting local police authorities said a van carrying APF officials met with an accident along the Mahendra Highway this afternoon at Banbehada area this afternoon, when the driver tried to the give way to a passing bicycle.
Three of the seriously injured APF soldiers have been taken Nepalgunj for treatment while others have been admitted to the local Seti Zonal Hospital.
The APF van was on its way to Attariya village from Banbehada, reports added. nepalnews.com mbk Aug 02 05
‘Zero tolerance’ policy towards sexual abuse of children, women: RNA
In response to Amnesty International’s recent report, the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) has reiterated that it has a ‘zero tolerance’ policy regarding sexual violence against children and women.
In a statement issued Tuesday, the public relations directorate of the RNA said the Army has handed cases of rape and sexual violence by its servicemen to civilian courts. It cited the handing over of two servicemen accused of raping women in Sunsari to the District court earlier this year.
Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) welcomes the recent Amnesty International report on the status of human rights in Nepal and its comprehensive portrayal of alleged human rights violations, the statement said. The RNA also thanked the London-based rights watchdog for its continued interest, goodwill and concern for the well being of the Nepalese people.
Regarding specific issues raised by the AI, the RNA said the accusation that the RNA has been involved in providing support to what Amnesty has termed “Village Defence Forces” in its report was not well founded. 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. We all know that people in some villages across the country have come out strongly against Maoist atrocities independently on their own (recently in Dhading, for example), the statement said.
In its report entitled Nepal: Children caught in the conflict, released last Tuesday, the Amnesty said children in Nepal were being killed, illegally detained, tortured, raped, abducted and recruited for military activities and accused both sides to the conflict of violating the most fundamental rights of children.
Rights groups say over 400 children have been killed, hundreds of others have been rendered disabled and thousands have been displaced along with their families due to the nine-year-old conflict.
There have been disturbing reports of children suspected of affiliation with the Maoist rebels being detained for long periods in army barracks, police stations or prisons — often held together with adults. Many child detainees report having been tortured by security forces during their detention, the Amnesty report said.
In its rejoinder, the RNA, however, said the report on children suspected of having affiliation with the CPN (Maoists) being detained and tortured for long periods of time in army barracks is unfounded and malicious. The accusation is very generic and not based on facts, the Army said.
Security personnel alleged to have been involved in the 13th February 2004 incident in Pokhari Chaur Village Development Committee in Kavre district, where 17 year old Subhadra Chaulagain was reported to have been shot, were placed under custody immediately after the incident took place. Although not mentioned in the Amnesty report, the accused continue to be held in custody and are under investigation for the alleged crime. The RNA will make public the results of the investigation and take necessary action against the accused if found guilty once the case is concluded, the statement said.
Regarding the 3rd September 2004 incident, where three girls in Basikhora in Bhojpur were alleged to have been shot dead by the security forces mentioned in the Amnesty report, the RNA and the local security bodies do not have any knowledge of the incident. However, should the facts of the incident be made available to us, we will conduct an independent enquiry into the incident and punish those found guilty.
“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. And, once again, we would like to call upon people not to take the law into their own hands,” the statement concluded.
In its report, the Amnesty International said that over the last few years the Maoists had abducted tens of thousands of school children for “political education” sessions, held in remote locations. While most of these children return home after a few days, some do not and it appears that the rebels are recruiting children for military activities and forced labour, despite the fact that the use of children under 15 in armed conflict is a war crime.
There is no response from the Maoist side as yet regarding the allegations leveled by the Amnesty.
In its report, the Amnesty urged both the sides to take all possible steps to respect and protect the rights of children and minimise the negative impact of the conflict on their lives.