RNA will make public names of detainees: Martin

A senior official at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Kathmandu has said the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) is going to make public the names of prisoners held in its custody.

“As there is no other detention facilities, the prisoners are kept in army barracks. There are a large number of outstanding cases of disappearances. I cannot mention the exact number right now but there are hundreds of such cases”, Ian Martin, Nepal representative of OHCHR, told AFP news agency, mentioning that the officials have pledged to make public a list of detainees soon.

Martin further added, “One of the major human rights issues of concern to the UN system before our arrival has been arbitrary detention, ill treatment, torture and disappearance of people held in army barracks.”

Another problem, Martin said, is that there has never been a system whereby there is a central register of who is held by the army barracks. He informed that the RNA is currently working on setting up such a mechanism.

He also quoted the army officials who claimed that the RNA didn’t want to keep detainees in barracks and that they had been asking the Home Ministry to manage other places of detention.

Legal provisions do not allow detention of individuals in army custody.

There are still hundreds of people held in army barracks who were mostly taken in detention in the year 2003 and 2004, he said. nepalnews.com nd Aug 31 05