US embassy cable - 04KATHMANDU1290

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 KATHMANDU 001290 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SA/INS AND DS/IP/NEA 
STATE ALSO PLEASE PASS USAID/DCHA/OFDA 
STATE ALSO PLEASE PASS PEACE CORPS HQ 
STATE ALSO PLEASE PASS TO DOL/VROZENBERGS 
USAID FOR ANE/AA GORDON WEST AND JIM BEVER 
MANILA FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA 
LONDON FOR POL/GURNEY 
TREASURY FOR GENERAL COUNSEL/DAUFHAUSER AND DAS JZARATE 
TREASURY ALSO FOR OFAC/RNEWCOMB AND TASK FORCE ON TERRORIST 
FINANCING 
JUSTICE FOR OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL/DLAUFMAN 
NSC FOR MILLARD 
SECDEF FOR OSD/ISA ALVERSON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PINS, PHUM, PTER, MOPS, PGOV, NP 
SUBJECT: NEPAL: CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT 
 
REFERENCE:  (A) 02 KATHMANDU 2307 
 
            (B) 03 KATHMANDU 2129 
            (C) KATHMANDU 722 
            (D) KATHMANDU 1056 
            (E) KATHMANDU 999 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
1.  Nepal's Maoist insurgency, which began in 1996, has 
tragically victimized the children of Nepal.  The frequent 
school bandhs (school closings), have disrupted the lives of 
students, parents and teachers and the scheduling of 
required exams, damaged the educational system and delayed 
the advancement of children.  The unregulated and rampant 
violence in the outlying districts has also been driving 
many youth to seek refuge in the cities and in India -- 
further fueling preconditions for trafficking in persons. 
Children have not only witnessed countless acts of violence, 
but have also been victims themselves.  Many others have 
been orphaned, displaced, harassed, detained and 
interrogated by parties on both sides.  The Maoist 
leadership denies using child soldiers, but intensified 
Maoist recruitment campaigns have resulted in thousands of 
children being forcibly rounded up to take part in 
"cultural" or "indoctrination" programs for the so-called 
People's War.  During these campaigns, children receive a 
modicum of military training, and local press reports 
indicate that many of them receive grenades and guns and 
instructions on how to use them against security forces. 
Though the pattern of forced recruitment of children is 
widely known, political instability and lack of security, 
particularly in the remote districts, makes it increasingly 
difficult to document, monitor and prevent the use of 
children in the conflict. End Summary. 
 
CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT 
-------------------------- 
 
2.  According to statistics from the Child Workers in Nepal 
Concerned Center (CWIN), a local NGO dealing with children's 
rights, 298 noncombatant children have been killed, 193 have 
been injured, over 2,000 orphaned, and more than 8,000 
displaced since the beginning of the insurgency in 1996. 
Similar statistics from the Informal Sector Service Centre 
(INSEC), a local human rights organization, suggest that 
between February 1996 and June 2004, 276 children (191 boys, 
85 girls), from the ages of one to 17, were killed in the 
conflict.  Of these 276, INSEC believes that 161 were killed 
by state security forces and 115 by Maoists.  The majority 
of these killings occurred in the mid- and far western 
districts of Nepal, although no region has avoided child 
casualties.  The statistics available on child casualties 
are somewhat ambiguous, as they are not categorized by cause 
of death.  Murders, bombings and accidental crossfire all 
contribute to this number, but the extent of each is 
unknown.  INSEC also cites multiple cases of injury, arrest 
and torture, disappearance, beatings, threats and abduction 
carried out against children by both the Maoists and the 
state.  (NOTE: The exact number of children affected is 
impossible to quantify, however, and the bulk of statistics 
must be taken from newspaper accounts, which are often 
inaccurate.  END NOTE.) 
 
3.  Recently, a noticeable increase in the number of deaths 
and injuries of children from stray bombs has occurred. 
During the months of May and June 2004, for example, of the 
13 children killed and 8 injured, 7 of the deaths and 7 of 
the injuries were caused by bombs.  These deaths occurred 
both as collateral damage during fighting between the 
security forces and the Maoists, during the bombing of 
public conveyances, and-even more often-as a result of 
children picking up unexploded ordinance in the aftermath of 
an attack. 
MAOIST RECRUITMENT OF CHILDREN 
------------------------------ 
 
4.  Despite the Maoists' frequent public statements of 
support for Geneva Conventions and respect for human rights, 
some comments by their leadership betray the actual 
ruthlessness of the movement.  For example, in April a 
vernacular paper quoted Maoist chairman Prachanda as saying 
that the Maoists intended to use youths and villagers as 
"human shields" during a "big attack" in eastern Nepal 
"sometime in the next two or three months" (REF D). 
According to a report in the April 16-22 edition of "The 
Nepali Times," local Maoists have not tried to hide their 
campaign to recruit children.  In March, Kamal Shahi of the 
Maoists' student wing told a gathering in the western 
district of Banke, "We will be victorious in our people's 
war, and for that we will raise a 50,000 strong force of 
child soldiers."  The militia units for which the Maoists 
are recruiting children are the lowest rung of the people's 
army.  The Maoist leadership justifies these recruitments by 
charging that since the army has "been killing 
schoolchildren," children need to be trained for "self- 
protection."  Another Maoist-affiliated student meeting in 
January concluded, "To guarantee their education, school 
children have no alternative but armed resistance."  The 
slogan for this campaign is "One School, One Strong 
Militia."  In addition to militia, children are recruited to 
serve various support functions and work as cooks, couriers, 
porters, members of cultural teams and informants. 
 
5.  In an attempt to win over students, Maoists have used 
schools for parades and drills, as well as venues to host 
"cultural programs."  The themes of the various cultural and 
indoctrination programs involve slogans such as "defeat 
imperialism," and "fight exploitation, suppression, and 
atrocities."  A news article featuring interviews with 
students (aged 10-14) after their release from Maoist 
training sessions quoted the students as saying they 
"couldn't understand the meaning of revolution" and 
"participated in the programs only because they [the 
Maoists] threatened physical action against those who did 
not attend" (REF D).  Not only do these demonstrations on 
school premises scare children, they also put them at risk, 
most spectacularly in the October 2003 incident at a 
secondary school in Doti District in which four students 
were killed by RNA soldiers (REF B).  In a subsequent 
interview with the press, one of the injured students was 
quoted as saying, "We raised our hands and told the army we 
are just students, but they started firing.  If the Maoists 
had not forced us to attend the program, my friends would be 
alive today." 
 
6.  Still, some children appear to be joining the ranks of 
the Maoist militia willingly.  An article that appeared in 
the October 4-10, 2002 edition of "The Nepali Times," 
reported that a 14-year-old boy, Chetnath Dhakal, was 
persuaded to join the ranks of the Maoist militia after 
seeing another 14-year-old from his village with a gun. 
Another youth, Krishna Prasad, who joined the Maoists when 
he was in grade seven, is now a commander of local child 
soldiers in his area.  In the far-western districts of Jumla 
and Dang, it is reportedly not uncommon to see children 
dressed in military uniforms carrying grenades, bombs and 
guns.  A ten-year-old girl, carrying two grenades, is quoted 
in one article proudly saying that her job is to sit by the 
side of the road and wait for security forces to come. 
Another soldier, an eleven-year-old girl, said "when we grow 
up we will take part in attacks on Royal Nepal Army bases" 
(REF C). 
 
7. Also alarming are the accounts of large numbers of 
students being forcibly rounded up by the Maoists for 
indoctrination programs.  A report released by Amnesty 
International on May 26, 2004, put Nepal at the top of the 
list for disappearances during 2003 (REF E).  In May of this 
year, over 3200 people were rounded up (the vast majority 
students).  In June, this number more than doubled, to 7300. 
A local news source on June 29 reported Maoist training of 
4,000 youths in Dailekh district.  A security source 
acknowledged awareness of the training, adding that a 
helicopter had been flown into the region but no air raid 
was conducted due to the large number of civilians in the 
area.  Although most individuals are returned after 
attending indoctrination sessions, an unknown number 
continue to be held captive. 
 
SECURITY FORCES ALLEGED INVOLVEMENT 
----------------------------------- 
 
8.  The Maoists are not alone in their exploitation of 
children; both the army and Maoists use children as 
informants.  In one incident in northeastern Dolakha 
district, Maoists rounded up 200 children -- the entire 
population of a primary school -- and marched them to an 
unknown location in the jungle. There they were questioned 
about the movement of security forces.  In that case, the 
Royal Nepal Army (RNA) had previously been using the school 
building as a barracks.  NGOs have also stated that children 
who have left the Maoists and reported to "surrender camps" 
run by the RNA have been forced to return repeatedly to 
their villages to identify former comrades or units, and to 
report on insurgent movements.  Obviously, this creates 
serious risk of retaliation by the insurgents.  NGOs also 
report that children have been beaten by military and police 
personnel during interrogation (REF A). 
 
 
NON-GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS 
---------------------------- 
 
9.  In an effort to document the abuse of children, NGOs 
like CWIN and INSEC have attempted to obtain accurate 
statistics over the past few years on the number of children 
abducted, killed, beaten, and displaced, based on reporting 
in the media.  [NOTE:  The Government itself, with its 
limited presence outside Kathmandu and major city centers, 
does not collect such statistics, relying largely on NGOs 
for information and monitoring.  The newspapers from which 
NGOs gather most of their data, however, are extremely 
limited in their ability to produce comprehensive reports. 
Most districts do not have local newspapers, and journalists 
from larger cities rarely travel to the rural areas in which 
the Maoists are most active.   END NOTE.]  From June to 
August of 2003, while the last ceasefire was in effect, 
INSEC sent a team of researchers to the eastern district of 
Sindhuli to conduct interviews on the impact of the conflict 
on women and children.  Because Maoists use children in a 
number of capacities (as couriers, cooks, porters, 
informants, members of cultural teams, shields and as 
soldiers), it is difficult to ascertain the number of 
children involved in the Maoist militia.  One reporter who 
visited the western district of Rolpa in April noted he had 
met many Maoists who appeared to be under 15, but when asked 
they all said they were 18.  Some commentators also question 
whether organizations like CWIN and INSEC, with their clear 
leftist funding and sentiments, are interested in balanced 
reporting of human rights violations. 
 
10.  CWIN has set up an advocacy campaign for children, 
"Children as Zones of Peace," as well as a rehabilitation 
center for child survivors of armed conflict.  Shanti Griha, 
"Peace Home," provides educational support, health, peace 
education, and psycho-social counseling.  Following the 
decision by the Government of Nepal to remove the ANNISU-R 
student organization from the list of terrorist 
organizations, and the reopening of schools on June 18, on 
June 23 the Minister for Education and Sports, Bimalendra 
Nidhi, stated that the Ministry would soon examine ways to 
formalize the concept of making the "education sector a zone 
of peace."  It remains unclear at this time, however, the 
specific plan of action the government intends to undertake 
to accomplish this goal, or how the Maoists would react to 
the "zone of peace" concept. 
 
RESPONSE OF THE MINISTRY OF WOMEN, CHILDREN AND SOCIAL 
WELFARE 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
11.  When contacted on June 30 for comment on the position 
of the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare on the 
issue of child soldiers, Joint Secretary Shyam Sundar Sharma 
responded that the MoWCSW has "no interest" in the topic of 
child soldiers.  According to Sharma, to take such an 
interest would only create more problems; only members of 
the international community express an interest in this 
issue.  The MoWCSW has no plans to do anything about the 
issue of child soldiers in the future, Sharma concluded. 
 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
12.  Though the Maoist leadership continues to deny publicly 
the recruitment of children, it is clear that children 
throughout Nepal are being rounded up for use in the so- 
called "People's War."   Young and impressionable, many of 
these children may be seduced by the illusion of strength 
and power joining such a militia creates.  Others are forced 
to join due to threats of physical harm to them and their 
families if they refuse.  An especially vulnerable age-group 
is teenagers; teenagers are actively sought by the Maoists 
to become soldiers and frequently caught in the crossfire 
when security forces assume them to be Maoist rebels.  The 
fact that there have been human rights violations on both 
sides, in addition to the use of schools as barracks and 
parade grounds, serves to further confuse, intimidate and, 
ultimately, involve children, whether they like it or not, 
in the conflict.  It is positive that the GON leadership, 
local NGOs and donors hope to remove the education sector 
from the fray of the insurgency.  This cannot be 
accomplished, however, while the Maoists continue to engage 
in mass abductions of children from schools. The influence 
Maoist-affiliated student groups, such as the All Nepal 
National Independent Student Union - Revolutionary (ANNISU- 
R), have over the educational system also presents a 
significant challenge. As long as schools are misused as 
parade grounds, training grounds and battlegrounds, children 
will continue to be victims in this increasingly bloody 
conflict. 
 
MORIARTY