State of nepali state: Govt officials harassing us: Madhesi activists

Prashant Jha
KATHMANDU, AUG 11 - 2011
Two prominent Madhesi human rights activists have alleged that government officials have ‘directly and indirectly threatened’ them due to their work related to accountability and justice in the Tarai.

Dipendra Jha, chairperson of the Democratic Freedom and Human Rights Institute (DFHRI), and Ravi Thakur, the Kapilbastu-based chairperson of the Madhesi Human Rights Home, have warned that they can no longer continue their work in the present ‘climate of fear’. On Thursday, they registered a written complaint with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

In March, the human rights group had released a report on extra-judicial executions in the Tarai, documenting 133 cases which found that state security personnel had killed civilians and alleged armed group activists in ‘encounters’. Armed groups were found to be involved in 128 cases of extra-judicial killings. In June, Dipendra Jha, who is also a lawyer, filed a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court, which issued a show-cause notice to the authorities concerned. The Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha had referred to the report while asking the government to conduct a full investigation into the matter. Jha had also highlighted the issue with UN human rights officials in Geneva recently.

“A senior police officer directly told me to drop the case,” Jha told the Post. “I have also received indirect messages—through different channels—that there is a plot to target me if I continue with my activism, especially with regard to extra judicial killings.”

Jha said the level of individual risk against him was “extremely high,” and that he planned to stop pursuing and arguing the case for now.

“There is no support from any quarter, and I feel my life is at risk. Unless the present game-plan of the high level bureaucracy, supported by politicians, to target individuals stops, we cannot continue working.”

Ravi Thakur, who is based in Taulihawa, claims that his opposition to illegal detention in Rupandehi has brought him in direct conflict with the local police there. “The police there often arrest young men and women without a warrant, and detain them for weeks without filing any case. All those arrested are inevitably from the Madhesi community, and there is clear discrimination. When we raise the issue, the police officials first deny they have anyone in custody, and then accuse us of acting on behalf of the armed groups.”

Thakur said that by linking them with armed groups, the police want to intimidate and then create grounds for persecuting the activists.

“How can the police accuse me of being a separatist when I organised several inter-community dialogues in the region after the Kapilbastu riots, and even got a delegation of victims—many of whom are pahadis—to Kathmandu recently demanding compensation?”

Both Jha and Thakur allege that they have received almost no support and solidarity from the Kathmandu civil society and human rights organisations. “We have approached leaders of major human rights organisations, but they have not responded positively. Instead, they taunt us and say ‘why do you only raise Madhesi, and not national, issues’? Isn’t killing and illegal arrests in Madhes a national issue?”

They have also alerted the Kathmandu office of the OHCHR-N. “The Tarai Human Rights Defenders Alliance, a loose network of activists in the plains, will stop working if the government doesn’t end this intimidation,” said Jha.

Posted on: 2011-08-12 08:49
http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2011/08/11/top-story/state-of-nepali-state-govt-officials-harassing-us-madhesi-activists/225066.html