Human Rights team leaves for Baglung

December 5, 2004
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December 5, 2004

KATHMANDU: A fact-finding mission comprising activists from leading human rights organisations based in Kathmandu have left for the western district of Baglung to conduct an on-the-spot investigation of the incident of severe torture meted out to People’s Front Nepal (PFN) activists by the Maoist rebels.

Dozens of pro-left PFN activists, school teachers, civilians including a pregnant woman were severely beaten up and tortured by the rebels in the district last Monday (November 29).

The rebels have also abducted Lal Bahadur Chhantyal and Bharat Poudel after beating them up.

“The team will study incidences of severe torture (including physical and mental) meted out to the PFN workers by the rebels and also make the report public,” said advocate Shyam Babu Kafle of the Centre for Victims of Torture (CVICT), Nepal-who is also a member of the fact-finding mission.

Representatives of CVICT, INSEC, HIMRIGHTS and Forum for Women, Law and Development  are represented in the mission.

In a statement issued Sunday, CVICT has condemned the Maoist act of torturing political activists, teachers and civilians on the basis of their political affiliations. The organisation has also called upon the rebels to honour human rights and minimum standards of international humanitarian laws.

Earlier, reports had said that the rebels had targeted and attacked PFN activists at Damek, Binamare and Kasmisera VDCs in the district simultaneously on the night of Nov. 29 and injured dozens of them.  People’s Front of Nepal (PFN) has said its workers are being targeted by the rebels in various districts around the country as they are “exposing their atrocities.”