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Bulletin #2: Arrest of Student Leaders

(The following was compiled from contacts in Nepal)

Kathmandu, February 3, 2005:
Arrests of Student Leaders as of February 5th:

• Kalyan Gurung
• Rajendra Rai
• Kundan Kafle
• Roop Narayan Shrestha
• Guru Ghimire

These individuals are presumed to be in detention centers in or on the outskirts of the Kathmandu Valley.


Arrests of Civil Society and Media Representatives:

Kathmandu – Sindhu Nath Pyakurel, Former President of the Nepal Bar Association was arrested from his home on February 1st. He is in Halchowk in police deadquarters. Pyakurel has a heart condition and it's unknown whether he is receiving treatment.

Kathmandu – Tara Nath Dahal, President of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) was arrested while leaving the United Nations Building. The army had raided his home earlier that morning (February 4th).

Kathmandu – Mukunda Banskota, General Secretary of Nepal Bar Association. There are rumors of arrest but none confirmed.

Kathmandu – Bishnu Nisthuri, General Secretary of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), arrested.

Biratnagar – One human rights attorney who works with Advocacy Forum as been arrested (source: Advocacy Forum).

Searches of Civil Society and Media Representatives:

Kathmandu - Krishna Pahadi from the Society of Human Rights and Peace was hunted.

Kathmandu - Shyam Shrestha, Secretary of Civic Solidarity for Peace – Police / RNA came to his home to arrest him, he escaped through the back door. Authorities forced his wife to give them a photograph of Shrestha so that they could find and arrest him.

Nepalganj - Netra K.C., BBC Nepal – Crossed the border from India into Nepalganj and was either arrested, harassed or closely followed and not permitted to conduct any journalistic investigations (February 4th).

Other news:

Pokhara – Rubber bullets fired into student protest on college campus 58 students were arrested and tortured. Their hands were tied, they were blindfolded, and held in the army detention center. One girl was shot in her leg  Word is that they've been released. All the details are still unknown, but it does not appear that any fatalities have occurred (source: Advocacy Forum). According to the February 6th edition of the Kathmandu Post, The RNA outright denied that any students were injured.

Kirtipur – Maoists faxed a note to the bus transport office demanding bandha and closure of  the public transport system from Saturday, February 5th, onwards.

Kathmandu – British Ambassador was not allowed to visit political leader Pashupati S.J.B. Rana (RPP), who is under house arrest.

Kathmandu – Daughter of Girija Koirala (Nepali Congress), Sujata Koirala, went to visit her father under house arrest and was detained. She has since been released.

Kathmandu / Patan / Bhaktapur- Communist Party of Nepal – Unity Center Masal pamphleting and torchlight parade in protest.

Baglung – Protests, arrests

Nepalganj – Protests and arrests. There are reports of several protestors being injured on February 5th, but these remain unconfirmed.

Syangja – Protests

Chitwan - Protests

Morang – Arrests

Outside Nepalganj (location is not verified) – One helicopter went down on February 4th.


Nepali Congress Statement:

Spokesman Arjun Narasingha KC issued a statement on February 5th. In addition to condemning the King's move and demanding the immediate release of detained political leaders, he asked all members of the Nepali Congress who might have joined splinter factions to rejoin the "mother party" in order to effectively rally against the palace.


Human Rights Community Statement:

Kathmandu – 14 key Civil Society members met to make a statement on Feb 1, 2005. The statement said that after King Gyanendra's speech,he dismissed the cabinet, took all the power, and established his own government. This action is directly in opposition to the basic values and norms of democracy.

From today's meeting by human rights activists and the people from Civil Society, we condemn these steps by the king. After the king has taken power in Nepal, he has issued a declaration of emergency. This is a direct threat and violation of human rights.

This declaration is in violation of numerous international accords that Nepal is a signatory to and accountable for. In this serious and sensitive situation, we are assembling this meeting in order to request to the national and international community to secure and restore all human rights codes and accords.

1) Condemning the arrest of the political leaders and human rights defenders and demanding that their locations be revealed.

2) The RNA must immediately stop closely directly and indirectly monitoring all media, human rights defenders, and outspoken individuals. We are specially requesting the diplomatic community to assist with arrange security within Nepal and outside Nepal for all these individuals.

3) Without any reason, the mass communication and media have been shut down. This irresponsible act will create significant obstacles for the general people. This is why we are asking the international community to arrange a systematic mass communication for the people of Nepal.

4) We are requesting an independent and sovereign human rights commission. This commission is unable to do work properly right now. We are requesting a guarantee of proper work environment for the commission.

5) The country's human rights situation is worsening significantly. We are requesting that United Nations and human rights organizations conduct human rights monitoring in Nepal.

Signatories:

The signatories of this document are now under threat of arrest by RNA, who are searching for them. They are living underground. Therefore, their names are being withheld for security reasons.


From an interview with Shankar Pokhrel, Director of Media Relations, CPN-UML, February 5th:

Pokhrel has been in hiding since the February 1st announcement. His home has been searched and he is known to be on the 1,000 person list of UML party members whom the RNA has been given orders to arrest.

Since Feb 1st, he has stayed in three houses over four days, frequently moving from place to place to avoid being traced by the RNA.

He has been able to communicate with other party members during the brief periods where phones have been restored. The party is gathering information and making a plan at these times.

The RNA has a list of 1,000 people to arrest, divided into three categories. Category A is called "sensitive persons" and consists of people with the capacity to lead the masses, who are spokespeople and very well-known. Category B is for Central Committee Members and Category C is for general cadre.

The three main leaders of CPN-UML are under house arrest.

10-12 other leaders are in police custody.

200+ active workers from CPN-UML are also in police custody.

Leaders of Nepali Congress are also under house arrest and in police custody. This is occurring in districts throughout Nepal. The CPN-UML held a meeting to form an agenda and address the king's proclamation, and addressed three issues:

1) The CPN-UML has officially declared their opposition to the king's announcement. This proclamation is illegal, non-democratic and unconstitutional. In the name of solving the problem the king is attempting to extend his intentions and authority.

2) The CPN-UML declares their priority for unity within all political parties against the announcement of the king. The first priority is to establish unity within all parliamentary (officially recognized) parties.

However, the CPN-UML also would like to bring non-parliamentary parties, including Maoists, into a unified platform and struggle for a peaceful revolution against the king. The CPN-UML has invited the Maoists to join "cease terrorists acts and join hand to hand for a peaceful revolution."

The CPN-UML has given higher priority to go against the announcement of the king than to oppose the Maoists. They are appealing to the Maoists to "join with the [CPN-UML] in a peaceful way."

3) The CPN-UML is seeking to organize a popular movement against the king by networking with different political parties.

When asked how he felt about many Nepalis' comments that they did not regret the suspension of political parties due to corruption and mismanagement by political parties since the beginning of the democracy, he said "democracy has done many positive things to strengthen Civil Society for the public."

Pokhrel also said, "the government is only in the city. If the Maobodi allow the parties to organize in the village they can harness their popular support and organize against the king.

Compared to the political parties, the monarchy has a much worse reputation. Don't measure the political parties based on the word on the street. Today if elections took place 80 percent would vote for the political parties and 10 percent would vote for the monarchy."

However, there is very little support for the leaders of the political party. "The present cabinet has only two percent of the popular vote." This distrust of party leaders is the reason why many Nepalis are expressing support of the king's decision.

"Over the last 14 years we have made a lot of mistakes, which we are now realizing. Now there is a lot of dialogue within the party and we are going to go forward with a new path. Our first mistake was that we made a lot of compromises with the monarchy. We knew it was a mistake, [catering to the king's wishes], but we weren't able to communicate to the people [that we were acting on the king's command]"

When asked if CPN-UML had to choose between the king and Maoists today, Pokhrel responded, "the question is not 'to whom we choose', but 'when will the Maoists and King choose the people?' We would choose ourselves!"

Pokrel said that "the Maoists are more capable of changing" than the King, i.e., the Maoists are more likely to make compromises and come forward to work for a peaceful resolution, so they are more likely to work with the Maoists than the king. The Maoists are in a good position after February 1st. Because of the king's announcement lots of people will go to the Maoists and join forces."

When asked if CPN-UML members would join the Maoists, Pokhrel responded, "We are trying to make a movement. If we are not able to make a strong movement [due to suppression from the monarchy], many will join the Maoists. But no one will join the monarchy."

When asked if he had plans to flee the country to escape arrest, he said, "We are Nepali people. We don't need to leave. We operated underground for years during the Panchayat regime, and we will survive now."

Before Feb 1st, Pokhrel was the Director of the Education Department for CPN-UML. Since Feb 1st, he has been named Director of Media Relations for CPN-UML. He is the former president of the Nepal National Free Students Union. He is 41 and has two daughters.

INSN is the International Nepal Solidarity Network, which has activists in over a dozen countries around the world who are working to bring democracy to Nepal. Visit their website for regular updates related to the Nepal crisis.

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