Nepal’s Civil War: The Conflict Resumes A Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper (March 2006) Summary Recommendations • To the parties to the conflict • To the international community Background • Two Human Rights Crises: Civil War and Attacks on Civil Liberties • Hope and Disappointment Violations of the Laws of War by the Maoists and the RNA Abuses by “Vigilante Groups” and the Maoist Response The Maoists’ Use of Child Soldiers Security Forces’ Continuing Abuses and Impunity Summary Since Maoist forces ended their four-month unilateral ceasefire on January 2, 2006, fighting in Nepal’s civil war has engulfed the entire country. Nearly every one of the country’s 75 districts has been affected by the fighting between the Royal Nepali Army (RNA) and the forces of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (the “Maoists”). Civilian casualties, which decreased significantly during the ceasefire, quickly returned to previous levels once fighting resumed. The ten-year-old civil war continues to place the civilian population at serious risk of war crimes and human rights abuses while hindering economic development of the impoverished countryside. At the same time, the overall human rights situation in Nepal has generally deteriorated since King Gyanendra assumed absolute executive authority on February 1, 2005. The king has repeatedly subjected critical political activists, journalists, and human rights monitors to arbitrary arrest and censorship, only releasing detainees and relaxing restrictions under intense international pressure. Although the king justified his coup d’etat by citing the inability of the political parties to end the armed conflict, there is now a widespread consensus inside and outside Nepal that the conflict has reached a grinding military stalemate. It is now clear that the king’s rule by fiat has failed to bring the conflict any closer to resolution and has not alleviated the conditions of Nepal’s beleaguered population. Moreover, while the RNA has made progress in reducing certain serious abuses, its continued abusive practices and failure to prosecute past military crimes have turned many Nepalis against the government and army, diminishing their ability to wage an effective counterinsurgency campaign. It appears that the net effect of the February 2005 coup has been a significant loss of public support for the monarchy. Calls for the establishment of a republic, once rare, are now commonplace. In order to assess the situation after the ceasefire, Human Rights Watch conducted a three-week research trip in late February and early March, 2006. This was Human Rights Watch’s fifth research mission in Nepal over the last two years, and its third since the royal takeover. This latest trip found significant grounds for concern about the impact of the war on civilians, chief among them: • violations of international humanitarian law (the laws of war) by both parties, including indiscriminate aerial bombardment by the RNA in civilian areas; • the increased risk to civilians in areas contested by government-sponsored vigilante groups and Maoists; • the Maoists’ recruitment of children for military purposes; • the security forces’ continuing human rights abuses and impunity from prosecution. This briefing paper summarizes Human Rights Watch’s findings in each of these areas. It will be followed by a series of reports containing detailed analysis of these issues. Recent international pressure has made a difference in promoting greater respect for human rights by both government forces and the Maoists. We found that both the Maoists and the RNA had taken appropriate action during some of the clashes we investigated to minimize the harm to civilians. The RNA seems to have taken steps to reduce the practice of extrajudicial executions and “disappearances” of suspected Maoists and now turns many detainees over to police custody within a month. Security forces also allowed the Nepal Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, established in 2005, access to military barracks and other places of detention. Another area where international action has clearly benefited Nepali civilians has been the restriction on lethal military assistance to Nepal. Our observations bore out the opinion of Western and Nepali experts that the arms embargo has been very effective in limiting the access of both parties, and particularly the RNA, to more lethal weapons and ammunition that could have resulted in far higher numbers of civilian deaths and injuries. The RNA, which has frequently participated in United Nations peacekeeping operations abroad, also seems particularly sensitive to discussions within the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations about setting human rights conditions for force contributing countries. The possibility of the RNA being barred from future operations because of abuses by its troops in the civil war seems to have had a salutary effect, as have the conditions imposed by the U.S. Congress on military assistance. These improvements indicate that concerted and targeted international pressure, coupled with monitoring from the U.N. and Nepali human rights groups and journalists, are vital for getting the government and the Maoists to curb abuses by their forces. But as this report demonstrates, there are still several major areas of concern where the warring parties have failed to observe international standards or tried to circumvent them. Human Rights Watch urges the international community to continue to exert pressure on both sides of the conflict to limit the harm to Nepali civilians and preserve the space for Nepal’s small but vibrant community of civil society activists and journalists to monitor the parties’ respect for human rights. Recommendations To the parties to the conflict: 1. Violations of international humanitarian law: • Maoist forces must to the extent feasible avoid placing civilians at risk by launching attacks from and seeking shelter in populated areas. • The RNA must cease methods of attack that do not discriminate between military targets and civilian objects, including the practice of using helicopters to drop mortar shells in populated areas. 2. Abuses by “vigilante groups”: • The government of Nepal must immediately disband and disarm any vigilante group implicated in human rights abuses and prosecute those responsible. All civilian defense groups must be properly trained and disciplined as auxiliary law-enforcement forces and subjected to international standards regarding proper law enforcement and the use of force. The government must assume responsibility for the activity of civilian defense groups and ensure accountability for any abusive behavior. • The Maoists must treat humanely, in accordance with the laws of war, any vigilante group member they take into custody. 3. Recruitment of children for military purposes: • The Maoists must immediately end all recruitment of persons under the age of eighteen, demobilize combatants under age eighteen from all forces under their control, and deliver child combatants to the appropriate national agency or international humanitarian organization. All adults recruited by the Maoists before age eighteen must be given the option to leave. • The government of Nepal should ratify and implement the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflicts, which establishes 18 as the minimum age for participation in hostilities, for forced or compulsory recruitment into governmental armed forces, and for any recruitment into non-state armed groups. The Nepali government should cease the practice of detaining children under TADO and cooperate with the appropriate humanitarian agencies to create rehabilitation and reintegration programs for former child soldiers, and ensure that any such programs are tailored to meet the special requirements of girl soldiers. 4. Continuing abuses and impunity of the RNA: • The government must fully and fairly prosecute perpetrators of war crimes and human rights abuses and enforce penalties commensurate with the gravity of the offenses; civilian courts should have jurisdiction to prosecute military personnel for human rights abuses; • The government should immediately provide all information about “disappeared” persons to the families and the public; • The government should repeal or revise, in line with international standards, laws that undermine constitutionally guaranteed protections against human rights violations, such as the Public Security Act, the Public Offense and Punishment Act, the Anti-State Crimes and Penalties Act, and TADO. To the international community: • Nepal’s largest arms suppliers, India, the U.S., and the U.K., should continue to suspend lethal military assistance to Nepal until the government complies with international human rights and humanitarian law. Countries reportedly engaged in or contemplating lethal military assistance to Nepal, such as China, Pakistan, and Israel must also refrain from transferring any arms to Nepal. • Those countries who do supply arms or non-lethal items to either party should actively monitor their use to ensure they are not being utilized to commit abuses and should exclude all assistance to military units implicated in human rights violations. • India and China should improve their efforts to interdict the flow of arms to Maoist forces. • The European Union should appoint a Special Representative to ensure a coherent European approach to promoting human rights in Nepal. • Interested states should