AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
KATHMANDU, Dec 9: Amnesty International urged Nepal´s government to arrest an army major accused of torturing a 15-year-old girl to death during the country´s civil war.
Major Niranjan Basnet has been charged by a civil court with murdering Maina Sunuwar, who died in 2004 in army custody. A military tribunal said she suffered electrocution and drowning during interrogation.
Basnet was never arrested and continued to serve in the Nepalese army, most recently in Chad as part of a UN peacekeeping mission.
The United Nations reportedly expelled him from the mission after becoming aware of the charges, and asked Nepal´s government to repatriate him, but it is not clear whether he has yet returned.
"Major Basnet must be prosecuted by a civilian court for his alleged involvement in Maina Sunuwar´s murder," Jonathan O´Donohue, a legal advisor for Amnesty, said in a statement released late Tuesday.
"If he is still in Chad, the Nepal government should request the UN mission to detain him and to ensure his transfer back to Nepal to face trial."
However, an army spokesman said Basnet had been cleared by an independent military board of enquiry.
"There were others who were found guilty. They were court-martialled and faced jail terms and paid compensation to the victims," Brigadier General Ramindra Chhetri told AFP.
At least 16,000 people died in Nepal´s decade-long civil war between Maoist rebels and the state, which ended in 2006.
There are allegations of killings and torture on both sides, and rights groups say little has been done to bring justice to victims and their families.
Basnet was one of four soldiers charged with the killing of Sunuwar, who had been arrested as a suspected informant and Maoist activist.
In 2005, a military court convicted the other three of minor offences such as using improper interrogation techniques and not following procedures, and sentenced them each to six months in prison.
But they did not serve any jail time as the military court counted the period they had already spent confined to barracks during the investigation.
"We have serious concerns that these military proceedings were neither independent nor impartial," said O´Donohue.
Published on 2009-12-09 14:27:07
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