Amnesty International UHM

Demand the Release of Student Activist Krishna K.C.

September 22, 2005

General Pyar Jung Thapa
Chief of Army Staff (COAS)
Royal Nepalese Army
Bhadrakali, Kathmandu, Nepal

 

Lieutenant Colonel Pankaj Karki
RNA Human Rights Cell
Royal Nepalese Army Headquarters
Bhadrakali, Kathmandu, Nepal

Dear Sirs,

I am writing to you out of concern for the safety of Krishna K.C., a student-activist who has been held incommunicado by Nepali security forces for almost two years. It is believed he is being detained at the Ranger Mahavir Gan Battalion army barracks in the Chhauni district of Kathmandu. He has reportedly been tortured and ill-treated while in custody and is in poor health.

Despite two habeas corpus petitions and three interventions by Nepal’s Supreme Court, Krishna K.C. continues to be held and is at continued risk of torture or death. I urge you to release Krishna K.C. immediately and unconditionally unless he is to be charged with a recognized criminal offence. I also urge you to make public his whereabouts and grant him immediate access to his relatives and lawyers and to any medical treatment he may require.

Further, I call on you to initiate an impartial investigation into the alleged torture and ill-treatment of Krishna K. C., and into the Royal Nepal Army's repeated denials that they are detaining him, with the results to be made public and those found to be responsible to be brought to justice.

Hundreds of student activists have been detained in Nepal. Amnesty International believes that the majority of these students are prisoners of conscience, who have been detained purely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression and assembly.

I look forward to hearing from you that Krishna K.C. has been released.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Student activist Krishna Khatri Chhetri, known as Krishna K.C., has been detained incommunicado by the security forces for almost two years. He is reportedly now being held at the Ranger Mahavir Gan Battalion army barracks in the Chhauni district of Kathmandu.

 Krishna K.C. was arrested by plain clothes security forces without an arrest warrant in Kathmandu on September 13, 2003. He was reportedly taken to Bhairabnath Gan army barracks where he was severely tortured. Two habeas corpus petitions (requiring Krishna K. C. to be brought before a court) were filed on his behalf in September 2003 and February 2004, but the authorities continued to deny Krishna K.C.'s arrest even after a fellow detainee reported that he was being held and tortured in Bhairabnath Gan army barracks. In May 2004, the Supreme Court ordered the independent National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to investigate his case, but the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) again denied they were holding him and refused to allow NHRC representatives to visit Bhairabnath Gan barracks. On June 14, 2004 the Supreme Court again reiterated its request that the NHRC investigate the case but when NHRC representatives visited the army barracks, the security forces produced three other detainees who claimed that Krishna K.C. was not in custody. Reliable information subsequently confirmed that Krishna K.C. was being held in the barracks at the time and he was in poor health.

 In February 2005, following another Supreme Court request to clarify the circumstances of Krishna K.C.’s arrest and whereabouts, the military reportedly confirmed that he had been arrested under the Terrorist and Disruptive Ordinance (TADO). This law was brought back into effect by royal decree in October 2004 and allows people to be held in preventative detention for up to one year.

 Prior to his arrest, Krishna K.C. was the vice-president of the All Nepal National Independent Student Union (Revolutionary), which was banned by the government because it is considered to be ideologically close to the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) (Maoist). This may have been the reason for Krishna K.C.'s arrest.

 Student activists have been at the forefront of the movement to restore democracy and fundamental human rights in Nepal. As a result, they have faced arrest, harassment, and intimidation. Student leaders in politically affiliated unions have been specifically targeted. Amnesty International believes that the majority of the students who are being held have been detained purely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression and assembly.

 In the course of the nine-year-long conflict between government forces and the CPN (Maoist), Amnesty International has documented thousands of cases of arbitrary arrest, unacknowledged detention, torture and “disappearance” at the hands of the security forces. More than 400 cases of “disappearance” have been reported to Amnesty International since August 2003.

 The human rights crisis has deteriorated further since King Gyanendra seized executive power in February 2005.The security forces regularly fail to produce detainees when ordered to do so by habeas corpus rulings, and often re-arrest prisoners immediately after they have been freed by the courts. This threatens the authority and independence of the judiciary, and seriously undermines the rule of law in Nepal. Lawyers in the country worry that the increasing use of plainclothes officers to make such arrests will only worsen the problem of impunity for these violations.