United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Conflict-related Disappearances in Bardiya District December 2008 1 CONFLICT-RELATED DISAPPEARANCES IN BARDIYA DISTRICT TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................4 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY ...........................................................................................14 CHAPTER III: BACKGROUND.............................................................................................17 CHAPTER IV: PROFILE OF THE DISAPPEARED ............................................................21 IV.i: Persons disappeared after arrest by the State ...............................................................21 IV.ii: Persons disappeared after abduction by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN- M) .........................................................................................................................................23 CHAPTER V: THE INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK.........23 V.i: International legal framework on enforced disappearances and related violations......23 V.ii: National Legal Framework..........................................................................................27 CHAPTER VI: ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES AFTER ARREST BY SECURITY FORCES...................................................................................................................................29 VI.i: Security force presence and operations in Bardiya District .........................................29 VI.i.i: Royal Nepalese Army (RNA)................................................................................29 VI.i.ii: Nepal Police (NP) .................................................................................................33 VI.i.iii: Security force operations in the Rajapur Delta...................................................33 VI.ii: Arbitrary arrests in the course of security operations .................................................34 VI.ii.i: Targeted arrests during search operations.............................................................35 VI.ii.ii: Non-targeted arrests.............................................................................................38 VI.ii.iii: Illegal use of force during arrest........................................................................39 VI.iii: Detention, torture and ill-treatment in Chisapani RNA Barracks............................39 VI.iii.i: Places of detention...............................................................................................41 VI.iii.i.a: The National Park warden’s office ................................................................41 VI.iii.i.b: Service staff building facing soldiers’ mess ................................................42 VI.iii.i.c: Quarter guard in the military store...............................................................43 VI.iii.i.d: The trench and bunker .................................................................................43 VI.iii.i.e: Other places of detention ..............................................................................43 VI.iii.ii: Cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in detention.......................................44 VI.iii.iii: Torture...............................................................................................................46 VI.iii.iv: Mock executions and the fear of death .............................................................49 VI.iii.v: Rape and other forms of sexual violence...........................................................49 VI.iii.vi: Coercion to identify suspected Maoists, including relatives..............................50 VI.iii.vii: Extortion ...........................................................................................................51 VI.iv: Failure to acknowledge arrests and detention ...........................................................51 VI.v: Right to challenge the legality of detention ..............................................................55 VI.vi: The fate of the disappeared .......................................................................................56 VI.vi.i: Extrajudicial executions in detention..................................................................56 VI.vi.ii: Pattern of removal of persons subsequently disappeared from detention...........57 VI.vi.iii: Possible death from injury during arrest............................................................57 VI.vi.iv: Possible death due to torture ..............................................................................58 VI.vii: Attempts by the NA to cover up disappearances in Bardiya District.......................59 VI.vii.i: Killing of persons whom the NA stated were released......................................61 VI.vii.ii: Persons who the NA stated were “killed in an encounter” or “while trying to escape”..............................................................................................................................62 VI.vii.iii: Ministry of Defence press releases that victims were "killed in an encounter”63 CHAPTER VII: ACTIONS TANTAMOUNT TO ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE BY THE CPN-M .....................................................................................................................................65 VII.i: CPN-M presence and operations in Bardiya District..................................................65 VII.ii: Unresolved abductions and enforced disappearances................................................67 2 VII.iii: Detention .................................................................................................................68 VII.iv: Fate of those abducted and disappeared ...................................................................69 VII.v: Failure to disclose the location of the bodies............................................................70 VII.vi: Cases where the bodies of the abducted individuals were located ..........................71 VII.vii: CPN-M denial of involvement in abduction and disappearance ............................72 CHAPTER VIII: SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT OF DISAPPEARANCES ON THE FAMILIES OF THE DISAPPEARED.....................................................................................73 VIII.i: Diminished food security ..........................................................................................74 VIII.ii: Lack of access to health and education, and child labour ........................................75 VIII.iii: Social discrimination against wives of the disappeared..........................................75 VIII.iv: Case studies .............................................................................................................76 CHAPTER IX: TRUTH, JUSTICE AND REPARATIONS....................................................77 IX.i: Efforts of the victims’ relatives, Nepalese and international organisations................78 IX.ii: Decision of the Supreme Court of Nepal...................................................................79 IX.iii: State obligations and responses regarding truth, justice and reparations..................80 IX.iii.i:Truth .....................................................................................................................80 IX.iii.ii: Accountability and Justice..................................................................................83 IX.iii.iii: Remedies, including reparations........................................................................87 CHAPTER X: CONCLUSIONS.............................................................................................89 CHAPTER XI: RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................................92 3 CONFLICT-RELATED DISAPPEARANCES IN BARDIYA DISTRICT “I will take with me the lasting memory of the accounts given by the Tharu and other families whose relatives disappeared in Bardiya District during the conflict. I believe their stories. The suffering they expressed is testament to the fact that disappearances are on-going human rights violations. The parties to the peace accord must act without delay to clarify the whereabouts or fate of all those who disappeared, and to provide justice and redress for their families.” 1 Executive Summary This report sets out the findings of OHCHR’s investigations into enforced disappearances and related serious human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL) violations in Bardiya District in the context of the conflict between the State and the Communist Party of Nepal- Maoist (CPN-M). OHCHR has received information on over 200 cases of enforced disappearance after arrest by the security forces in the district, the highest number of reported conflict-related cases in one district in the country. Of these, OHCHR has investigated 156 cases so far, most of which took place following arrests between December 2001 (following the declaration of the first State of Emergency on 26 November 2001 and the deployment for the first time of the then Royal Nepalese Army (RNA)) and the subsequent ceasefire in January 2003. OHCHR’s investigations into enforced disappearances by the State authorities focus on this period, which was one of the most intense of the conflict in the district. Fourteen cases of actions tantamount to enforced disappearance after abduction by the CPN-M between November 2002 and October 2004 were also documented in