Highlights:

I have always thought -- if somewhat naively -- that with a strong civil society and a
few martyrs (remember, Bhupi Sherchan's that poem?) to the cause, the excesses of the Royal Nepal Army can be challenged and contained. RNA, despite its babu-shahebi arrogrance, has to be accounatble to the public.

Besides, from a pragmatic standpoint, of the two devils, it's the devil we know.

But I had always wondered who would ever even think about punishing those other devils . . . the Maoists for their gruesome, unspeakable and sick crimes?

That is why I was encouraged to read these words:

An extract:

But her harshest words were for the Maoists who she warned shouldn?t think they exist in a legal vacuum. She told us: ?I would like to warn the leaders of the insurgency not to misread developments in the wider world nor to believe that they can operate outside of the law.? She said she was most concerned about the abductions of children, forced displacement of families, murders and extortion by the rebels. But even while Arbour was still in Nepal, Maoists went ahead with the abduction of 500 students and teachers in Dadeldhura and 750 in Sankhuwasabha for their indoctrination programs.



****
Fight by the rules
by NARESH NEWAR
http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue232/headline.htm

It is an indication of just how seriously the world now takes the brutality of Nepal?s conflict that someone like Louise Arbour was here this week.

The former Canadian supreme court justice is a name associated with genocides in Rwanada and ex-Yugoslavia. She specialises in bringing war criminals to justice through international tribunals like she did the massacre perpetrators from Rwanda as well as Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic.

Her presence in Nepal should have sent a chill down the spine of every commander and political or rebel leader under whose watch human rights atrocities are being committed. More than 12,000 Nepalis have lost their lives in the last nine years: most of them are unarmed civilians, butchered, disappeared, killed after arbitrary arrests and torture.

This week in Kathmandu, Arbour was outspoken in her criticism of state security and the Maoists and warned them that they would be held to account. ?In every part of the world, political and military leaders who thought themselves immune from persecution are now answering before the law for the gross human rights abuses they perpetrated,? Arbour said.

Nepal has signed more than a dozen international treaties and instruments that would allow the UN to get Nepali human rights violators into international courts. ?They are more than enough for the UN Security Council to set up tribunals for Nepali perpetrators,? Sher Bahadur KC of the Nepal Bar Association and international lawyer told us, ?and Arbour was here to assess the human rights situation under that UN provision.?

Arbour met King Gyanendra, Prime Minister Deuba, COAS Pyar Jung Thapa conveying her concern that there have been very few serious investigations and convictions of human rights abuses. The army was also given the message that human rights violations at home would affect the future of its UN peacekeeping operations abroad.

Arbour also met human rights activists and relatives of the disappeared. But her harshest words were for the Maoists who she warned shouldn?t think they exist in a legal vacuum. She told us: ?I would like to warn the leaders of the insurgency not to misread developments in the wider world nor to believe that they can operate outside of the law.? She said she was most concerned about the abductions of children, forced displacement of families, murders and extortion by the rebels. But even while Arbour was still in Nepal, Maoists went ahead with the abduction of 500 students and teachers in Dadeldhura and 750 in Sankhuwasabha for their indoctrination programs.

A UN team on involuntary disappearances was in Nepal last month and is scheduled to present its report in the run-up to a hearing on Nepal scheduled for March. Arbour?s office in Geneva will be looking at
progress till then.

The news is encouraging. But, in realty, such prosecution
will not occur before the end of this war. I liked the warning
to RNA, the RNA chiefs who make a lot of money from RNA
staff's UN Peace Keeping force's salaries. IF UN can suspend
it for just a few months, the money hungry top brass in
RNA will surely launch some investigation, because the UN peace
keeping forces from Nepal run "Srimati Sangha of RNA officers",
which is another way of funneling RNA's PEACE Keeping's
money to top officer's wives. A kind of snatching money from
poor low level cadres in army. In the past, UN peace keeping
force when returned to home used to bring high duty items
without paying any duty and make huge chunk of money out
of it. So, if UN cuts off this chain, then big bossses will surely
come forward and try to find escapegoats and punish, just the
way "Graner" got punishment in US to save Rfeld's face.

Well, Maoist leaders won't listen to UN. They just want to use
UN to internationalize their war, but will never come to close
this fight with the help of UN. There is only a third factor that
can bring is India, by stopping movement of Maoists in India,
just the way BP was forced to leave India and ran "Mel Milap"
slogans. IF India stops Maoist's access to India, right today,
I bet Maoists will announce ceasefire within a month and
will accept any face saving "safe landing plan", e.g. PM or DPM post
and inclusion of few thousand Maoists in RNA. As long as
India is not going to act, UN's threatening messages won't work.
The Int's courts work only after the war comes to end. So,
all these hues and cries are not effective to Maoist leadership,
well, it might be scary to top notch Maoists, but lower level
cadres are not under the control to Maoist leadership and their
worry won't help them. Otherwise, BRB and Prachanda always
making hues and cries in their FAXes are completely different
from their cadres action in the field.

GP

Louise Arbour also addressed during the report launch of Watchlist. The report is titled "Caught in the Middle: Mounting Violence Against Children in Armed Conflict". Some of you might be interested in the report. It can be accessed at

http://www.watchlist.org/reports/nepal.report.20050120.pdf

Haven't gone through the report in detail yet but looks pretty comprehensive.

HM