Issues Of Human Rights
Sincerity Essential

By Mukunda B. Pandey

HUMAN rights is characteristically understood to be equal and inalienable rights that each and every person acquires by virtue of being born as a human. There is perhaps no country in the world that has an absolute record of human self-respect without any report of its violation.

Understanding

While friendly countries, especially major powers like the U.S, U.K, India and China, have well understood the problems faced by Nepal in dealing with a situation that has an adversary that uses all kinds of gruesome tactics and merciless methods for its sinister goals; a handful of people manipulated by their false propaganda or personal relations exercise or filled with vested economic or other self-interests to sustain violence and see Nepal continuously in conflict so as to muddle in the truobled waters have been citing the so-called human rights violations by the Nepali state while dealing with the circumstances. The Amnesty International has placed a sloopy report on December 19th 2002 on its web page which goes on to state that half of the killings by either the army; police or armed police have been unlawful. However, it does not reason out how so much of unexploded bombs, bomb-making equipment, arms and ammunition, looted money and jewellery have been recovered from those Maoists, in the report. Neither does it mention even once in its report regarding the incessant "Nepal-Bandhs" called by the Maoists as a violation of human rights of the sovereign people that have a right to movement in their own land. In its 24 page report only a single paragraph is given to the violations committed by the Maoists even which is so gently drafted that any sane mind can see the bias on the part of the organisation that is known to have money-hungry local staffs that are themselves soft towards the Maoists. On its 10 recommendations to UN member states about Nepal, all 10 are anti-government. It even transforms itself into a fortuneteller and states, "it appears unlikely that parliament elections will be held or that talks for a peaceful solution to the conflict between the government and the Maoists will be initiated." The report furthermore, casts shadow over the capacity of the government, the Supreme Court, the Human Right Commission, the Royal Nepal Army and other revered institutions of the country in addressing reports of human rights violations which strikes an inevitable question on what authority this club of a few eccentrics possesses on raising doubts about the entire state which is not only dependable but is also responsible for the safety of the Nepali people?

So much is the baloney of the report that there are gross factual and technical mistakes on virtually every page. It asserts that more Maoists are being killed in encounters while a very few are being arrested. Who is going to explain it to them that these are deadly terrorists with SMG, LMG, 303 rifles and bombs? Before being handcuffed, he/she is going to blow the head off of the innocent security officer if engaged in a bloody encounter. The report refers to "a late evening in ward no. 2, Sorahawa in Bardia district where 400-armed servicemen reached in 5 vehicles." Amazingly, it does not question itself how 400 people fitted into just 5 vehicles unless those were jumbo jet aircrafts? It also cites 10th September 2002 in Neulapur in Banke district where people saw three security personnel in black uniform but does not inform itself over the fact that black uniform is not worn by any government serviceman in Nepal except the humdrum non-gazetted staff of government offices who ironically are the most targeted by the rebels around the mid-west. Like in a horror movie, the report additionally imagines a rape case in Chisapani army camp where two girls were "offered coffee" and "told to take shower". And like in a badly made movie, it does not fancy that coffee is almost never available in any of the poorly equipped army barrack let alone the luxury of a shower unless the fiction-writer inside the Coffee House of Piccadilly wrote the original story.

Furthermore, it repeatedly quotes "the Commander of the Armed Services" for its implausible incidents but forgets that Nepal neither has an armed service nor its commander. The report even has some amusing tales to entertain its readers worldwide. It dreams of a family in Kailali district beaten by armed personnel of the APF with laathis! An obvious question arises; where these personnel hid their sophisticated arms and ammunition while trying their pricks with the wooden sticks? Then it names "an innocent watch-repairer from the same district of having been pointlessly victimised" on 10th September 2002. But it itself discloses that the "same innocent watch-repairer was with three other members of the CPN (Maoist)" while in an encounter.

The report says that its exclusive Producer, the Amnesty International has recorded many instances of disappearances and suspects that many of those may be alive in army custody. How come that it does not suspect that these disappearances may have been a result of the kidnapping by the Maoists and may be still alive inside their jungle hideouts? Such sloppy/unrealistic tales are frequently cited in the report and have become a talk of the town around Kathmandu ever since the report was published.
After this highly prejudiced report was circulated and after it began amusing people, the Amnesty International, even issued another news flash saying, "the families of human rights victims named in its report are subjected to threats to their lives and other reprisals."

What this "film production house" and other organisations if they are genuinely interested in seeing a peaceful resolution of this problem must realize is that it is His Majesty's Government of Nepal that has an obligation to the people of Nepal to safeguard their lives, which is being uselessly targeted by the Maoists. They must also know that it is the Royal Nepal Army and the Nepal Police personnel that are risking their lives in difficult conflicts around the globe simply to protect the human rights of innocent communities. Since, it is an insurgency with nearly eight thousand die-hards where there is an innocent-looking farmer in the afternoon transforming into a deadly guerrilla at night it is always a challenge to the security personnel to distinguish an innocent from a guerrilla especially at night and when he/she is with a group that is acting suspicious. A security personal must constantly decide either to shoot or get shot himself. But it is not that everything is all right and nothing needs to be done. With assistance from friendly donors, a human rights orientation and training course is going on to security personnel, which will furthermore empower them with the necessary knowledge and expertise on how best to separate innocents and respect their human rights. The RNA has at the same time set up investigation teams to check on certain cases that have been publicized as being gross abuses on human rights.

Truism

It is a well-known truism that big countries are never brusquely cautioned over their poor human rights record. Only small, landlocked, resource-less and emerging democracies like Nepal are spanked and bullied for nothing so as to mess up their international credibility. It may watch and enjoy the movie which has been well choreographed really, but the Nepal government and especially its Foreign Ministry is well advised not to be overly concerned or emotional with this nonsense as there are thousands of Nepal-lovers worldwide that know very well the real situation on the ground, the actual perpetrators of human rights, the government's earnest desire to curb terrorism and re-place the kingdom as a peaceful shangri-la.

Other Stories

• Researchers Translate DNA Code As Music