NEPAL: Police accused of arbitrary detentions Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - cjepsa@aol.com (CJEPsa) Kathmandu Post Police accused of arbitrary detentions -By a Post Reporter KATHMANDU, June 14 - Seventy-five years old Parmananda Gautam of Chauri Pokhari VDC in Kavre district is on a look-out for his daughter and son in the capital. The septuagenarians daughter Kamala, in her 30s, and son Navin, 24, were arrested by the police from their Tebahal apartment last month. Since the arrests, not only is the old man from Kavre unaware of the charges framed against his teacher-daughter and son, a student, by the police, he is yet to know where, if at all, they are being detained. Family members of the persons said to be detained arbitrarily by police demanding their release at a press conference held in the capital on Monday. Not formal case has been filed against them despite their detention for a long time now. Rabindra Dhakal of Harmi VDC in Gorkha is on a similar mission. His elder brother, Rajendra, was taken into custody by the police over five months ago in early January near Khairenitar in Tanahu. Despite being a lawyer, and a human rights activist, the elder Dhakal has been missing since his arrest. He even features in the Amnesty International list of "disappearances" in custody. Gautam and Dhakal are not alone in search for their dear ones. Several other families from around the nation have been suffering the torture of having to live for months without a know about their family members. At least half a dozen other families gathered the courage today to allege the state of arresting their family members and detaining them for months together without proceeding with the normal procedure of criminal justice. After the arrests, all the family members took refuge of the Supreme Court, the ultimate arbiter and protector of the citizens fundamental right to freedom under the Constitution. Nothing has come out of the series of habeas corpus petitions at the apex court demanding the release of the detainees, however. "The police told the Supreme Court that my brother was never taken into custody and argued that for the same reason he could not be presented before the court," said Dhakal. Ditto for the families of Gore Bahadur Purkoti (Sindhupalchowk), Palshang Lama (Kavre), Milan Nepali (Kathmandu), Dandapani Neupane (Tanahu), Dundu Tiwari (Ramechhap) and Bikas Sharma (Dang). In none of the cases did the police adhere to the requirement of informing the detainee of the charge against him, respecting the Constitutional guarantee regarding criminal justice. Provisions dealing with Right Regarding Criminal Justice under Article 14 of the Constitution provide, among others, that "every person arrested and detained in custody shall be produced before a judicial authority within a period of twenty-four hours after such arrest...and no person shall be detained in custody beyond the said period except on the order of such authority." The Article also provides that the detainees shall have the right to consult and be defended by a competent lawyer of his choice, a fundamental right regarding criminal justice found in all democratic societies. In case of the eight families named above, the police apparently had or has no intention to follow the letter of the law. There are some reasons to assume that the detainees could have association with one of the more radical Communist parties including the underground Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the leader of the three-and-a-half years old "Peoples War." One of the family members today described most detainees as "people of progressive outlook," an euphemism to imply their political affiliations. But their political beliefs are besides the point, as far as the states commitment to fundamental human rights of detainees are concerned, as rights activists told the press conference today. "Protection of life of the citizens is the primary duty of every civilized government," said Rishikesh Shaha, a prominent human rights activist. And, the unalienable right to life expands to all sections of the citizenry. Including the most heinous and cold-blooded of the criminals. "The state can take action against its citizen if it feels he or she is a criminal," said advocate Bishwa Kant Mainali, another rights activist. "But the law provides for a set of procedures which must be followed." It is exactly those procedures of criminal justice which the police does not seem inclined to follow. http://www.nepalnews.com/ Center for Justice, Equality and Peace in South Asia - An advocacy group for Indigenous and Minority Rights. To subscribe, send a message to cjesa-subscribe@egroups.com Go to the e-group's home page at http://www.egroups.com/list/cjesa ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-06.19.99-05:28:22-28475