Maoists committed grave humanrights abuses

By Bhola B Rana
Kathmandu, 26 Feb: Maoists, Maoist-affiliated YCL and members of ethnically based armed groups committed numerous grave human rights abuses in 2008, a US State Department report said, according to the US embassy..
The U.S. Department of State released its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices on Wednesday, Wednesday in Washington, DC.
Some highlights of the 2008 Report for Nepal are listed below:
- Members of the security forces committed some human rights abuses during the year, and the Maoists, the Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League (YCL), and members of other small, often ethnically based armed groups committed numerous grave human rights abuses.
- Members of the Nepal Police (NP) and Armed Police Force (APF) occasionally used excessive and lethal force in response to continued demonstrations throughout the country.
- Numerous armed groups, largely in the Terai region in the lowland area near the Indian border, engaged in attacks against various entities, including civilians, government officials, members of particular ethnic groups, each other, or Maoists.
- Impunity for human rights violators, threats against the media, arbitrary arrest, and lengthy pretrial detention were serious problems.
Nnnn