Nepal: Update to NPL35747.E of 18 December 2000 on the activities of the Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist (January 1996 - January 1999)

A 10 March 1997 Amnesty International Report states:

According to information provided by police officials in early December 1996, 16 civilians have been killed by members of the CPN (Maoist) since the declaration of the "people's war" in February 1996. The Deputy Minister of Home Affairs in October 1996 reported to Parliament that there had been 43 incidents of violent attacks on civilians and that 39 houses had been set on fire.

Amnesty International has received information about 13 civilians, including members of the NCP and other mainstream political parties, defectors from the SJM and suspected informants, apparently deliberately killed by armed Maoist activists. Among them is Deuchan Basnet, Chairman of the VDC, Pipal, Rukum district. He was killed on 14 July

1996, reportedly by a group of four or five masked men armed with khukuris (traditional Nepali curved knives). ...

In early March 1996, 11 people were receiving treatment at Thribhuvan University Teaching Hospital after they were attacked by Maoist activists with hammers and other tools. Among them was Narjit Basnet, a teacher at a primary school in Pipal VDC, Rukum district, and brother of Deuchan Basnet. He was attacked on 25 February 1996 on his way home by a group of armed men, one of whom he identified as a local activist of the SJM.

His left hand and two fingers of his right hand were cut off with a khukuri. Several sources confirmed that, despite his heavy bleeding, the Maoist activists did not permit Narjit Basnet's relatives to take him for treatment until two days later.

Prior to the attack, Narjit Basnet had received death threats by letter urging him to join the SJM within ten days or face the consequences. His name had also been among a list of names of ten people written on the school wall with a message next to it saying "we will kill you." The issuing of death threats by letter or pamphlet pinned on doors or written on

walls of targeted people's homes was frequently reported to Amnesty International. Alternatively, leaflets have been issued after somebody has been killed, in which the reasons for the killing are set out.

Baburam Bhattarai, the leader of the SJM, in a statement issued on 9 March 1996, indirectly admitted that people had been deliberately and arbitrarily killed. He was reported as having stated: "Targets for the war are selected only because of their role as exploiters and not because of their affiliation with any particular political party."

A 15 July 1998 Neue Zurcher Zeitung article states:

For more than two years, a Maoist movement dedicated to fighting the government has been growing in remote sections of western Nepal. It is now active in about a third of the country, and, among other things, poses a danger to development projects. ... in the course of the last two year news had periodically leaked through of police posts being attacked and local politicians murdered. Wealthy peasants were being driven off, their stores of grain distributed, land registry offices set on fire, and poor peasants made owners of newly vacated land. ...

Last May a group of six journalists visited 12 villages in the Rolpa district. According to their reports, the rebels [Maoists] are generally invisible but their influence is ubiquitous. In 48 of the Rolpa district's 50 villages, they managed to block elections of village councilmen to Village Development Committees, and without the village elders no development funds will be released by Katmandu. In this way, with the help of civilian sympathizers – many of them schoolteachers – the rebels succeed in dominating local governments and courts. The police appear on the scene only in groups of 30 or more, and they have largely given up trying to exercise their normal functions. ...

But except for a few names – Bhattarai as chief ideologue, Kamal Dahal Porachanda as military leader – little is known about the strength and leadership structure of the Jana Yudha [People's War]. One of the ethnologist's [a French ethnologist familiar with the area] informants claims to have seen a camp with about 500 fighters, uniformed and equipped with rudimentary armaments. The movement finances itself through attacks on local banks, extortion from wealthy peasants and merchants, and "taxes" collected from villagers. Estimates of the number of armed cadres range between 2,000 and 20,000.

The ranks of the Maobadis are being swelled by jobless youngsters as well as by villagers who were members of the two regular CP groups but have turned from them since the parties have been taking part in the struggles for government posts and prerequisites in Katmandu. The Maoists are now reaping the harvest from the long years during which Communist cadres infiltrated village councils in the days of the dictatorial monarchy. That is doubtless one of the reasons why the movement has spread so quickly to at least 20 of Nepal's 75 districts.

But the most important reason for the guerillas' growing success is the government's reaction. In the first two years, the Katmandu regime looked on powerlessly as the Maobadis murdered officials and politicians and destroyed public facilities. In February of this year, however, it launched large-scale police actions in which special police units landed by helicopter in villages, surrounded the communities, combed them for suspects and shot many inhabitants out of hand. Since the Maoists regularly take their meals in the villages at night, their residents are regarded as sympathizers. ...

Development organizations operating in Nepal must also reckon with the existence of the insurgency. A year ago the offices of Britain's Save the Children Fund were destroyed, and this year a local employee of US Aid was shot to death.

A March 1999 Amnesty International Report states:

According to government figures, at least 227 armed activists of the CPN (Maoist) were killed by police during the "intensified security mobilization" operation between 26 May and 7 November 1998. However, human rights groups report that many civilians were among those alleged by police to have been killed in so-called "encounter" killings. Furthermore, evidence suggests that police have resorted to deliberate killings of members of the CPN (Maoist) as an alternative to their arrest. In other instances, civilians suspected by police of being sympathizers of the CPN (Maoist) are reported to have been victims of extrajudicial killings. ...

Armed members of the CPN (Maoist) have been responsible for deliberate killings, abduction and torture of people they consider to be enemies of the "people's war," including members and candidates of mainstream political parties, particularly the NC. According to information provided by the Home Ministry, between 26 May and 7 November 1998, 24 civilians were killed by armed members of the CPN (Maoist) and there were 52 incidents in which civilians were injured. At the time of the local elections in May 1997, there were reports of deliberate killings and hostage-taking of prospective candidates by armed activists of the CPN (Maoist), which had announced a boycott of the elections. At least seven candidates and voters were reported to have been killed, particularly in Rolpa and Rukum district. ...

Members and local politicians of the NC have been the prime target of armed members of the CPN (Maoist) throughout the period of the Maoist "people's war." Govinda Poudel, a NC member, was hacked to death by a group of armed Maoists at Rambhapur, Bardiya District on 9 August 1998. Shankar Bahadur Shaha, an NC member and former chairman of the Mahadeopuri VDC, Banke district was killed by suspected Maoists in July 1998. In the run-up to the second phase of local elections in Rukum, Rolpa, Salyan and Jajarkot on 18 December members of the CPN (Maoist) stepped up their attacks on political activists, particularly NC members. ...

Members of the CPN (Maoist) were also suspected of planting a bomb at the residence of the Minister for Land Reforms and Management, Chiranjivi Wagle, in Kathmandu on 15 December 1998. This is the first attempted killing of a member of the central government to have been reported.

Since the start of the Maoist "people's war," human right defenders including lawyers have become victims of human rights abuses at the hands of both the police and members of the CPN (Maoist) ... Those documenting human rights violations by the police are suspected of being active supporters or sympathizers of the CPN (Maoist). Similarly, those highlighting abuses by members of the CPN (Maoist) have come under threat. ... Several human rights activists in Mid-Western region have complained of intimidation by the CPN (Maoist). Apparently, they have been pressurized by members of the CPN (Maoist) not to report human rights abuses committed by its members.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

References

Amnesty International (AI). March 1999. Nepal: Human Rights at a Turning Point. (AI Index: ASA 31/01/99)

_____. 10 March 1997. Nepal: Human Rights Violations in the Context of a Maoist "People's War. (AI Index: ASA 31/01/97)

Neue Zuricher Zeitung [Zurich]. 15 July 1998. Bernard Imhhhasly. "Nepal: In the Shadow of the "Shining Path" Maoist guerrillas Battle in the Himalayas." (accessed 7 May 2001]