Kathmandu: Nepal asked to allow UN envoy address torture claims

[struggle4progress]

26-June-2004

Kathmandu, The UN Saturday asked Nepal to allow its special envoy to visit the country and address allegations of torture against both security forces and Maoist guerrillas.

The request coincided with the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

"The number of reports alleging torture and other serious human rights abuses has climbed significantly. Priority steps must be taken to combat the rise of torture throughout the country," the UN office here said in a public appeal.

In 2003, the UN's special envoy to probe torture allegations -- the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture -- had studied 170 reports of alleged torture and ill treatment and submitted 70 "urgent appeals" to Nepal.
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http://www.keralanext.com/news/index.asp?id=40256

[Mnemosyne]

1. Can't remember, is Nepal a member of UN?

if not, they will most likely be ignored as was Tibet.

Sad.

[struggle4progress]

2. Since 1955:

http://www.un.org/Overview/unmember.html

[Mnemosyne]

5. Thanks, memory is failing.

[MetaTrope]

3. How about investigating the assassination of Nepal's king

by his CIA-linked brother?

[AP]

4. IIRC, biggest oil driller in Nepal is CairnEnergy -- Bush's Scottish bud's

company.

[paulk]

6. Cairn has applied for permission to explore for oil in Nepal

I don't think they've received it yet. They operate a lot of wells in India. There is a Houston based company, Texana, which has been looking since 1998, I believe. I don't know if they have any connections to Bush.

The former King was killed by his son, supposedly. Most people I've talked to in Nepal believe the new crown prince (his nephew) was behind it. I really can't buy the CIA being involved - I've never seen or heard a plausible scenario for that (and I've been there twice since the regicide). It just seems like a straight ahead palace coup.

If another country was involved, I would bet more on India than the US.

[MetaTrope]

7. This message from Nepal was widely posted at the time...

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0106/S00015.htm

Friday night the entire royal family of Nepal and their body guards were brutally murdered in cold blood at the regular friday night family gathering. ( this included the 9 month old princess) What has been reported as a family squabble with the crown prince killing everyone and then shooting himself , and even a gun going off by itself (somehow killing 30+ people, some of whom were not in the same room?!) are outright lies. Immediately the royals were burned, much sooner than would be normal practice. The crown prince, the supposed killer, was made king while lying brain dead.

Ironically, the king's brother, Gyanendra was out of town. At the same time his nephew, Paresh, a known murderer of at least 5 people(!) was in the palace . So was the king's other brother Direndra, who has been living in London since 1990 and has been estranged from the royal family. Both brothers are criminals who have been involved with stealing and selling the antiquities of Nepal, drugs selling, and who knows what else. Both brothers vehemently were against democracy in Nepal and there was a huge fight between them all when King Birendra gave up the powers of the Monarchy in 1990 and declared a democracy for Nepal. It has long been known that Gyanendra has had a CIA link as well as ties to the government of India. What those connections are in this whole affair remains to be seen. There are no secrets in Nepal! ...

A political commentary on the event is here.

In the months leading up to the Nepali coup, the CIA established an office in the Maharajgunj District of Kathmandu, next door to the residence of Prince Gyanendra. Witnesses reoprtedly saw streams of Nepali police and military officials streaming into the offices. Other U.S. “civilians,” said to be with private military contractor CIA fronts like MPRI, were also seen arriving at the offices. In the spring, a U.S. Special Operations Forces personnel arrived in Kathmandu on a secret exercise code-named Bailey Nightingale I. The cover for the exercise was said to be earthquake disaster training. But it now appears it had another disaster in mind. The military team was composed of U.S. psychological operations (PSYOPs) personnel adept at coming up with tales like the one about the Crown Prince murdering his family. ...

What worries me is that the writer of the original message, Cynthia Edwards, has quite a trail on the internet as a lecturer and travel writer for a decade or two before the coup, but there's been no sign of her since...

[AP]

8. The New Yorker ran an interesting article on the killings.