US embassy cable - 02KATHMANDU990

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 000990 
 
SIPDIS 
 
GENEVA FOR RMA 
ROME FOR USMISSION 
LONDON FOR POL/RIEDEL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/21/2012 
TAGS: PREF, PHUM, PGOV, PREL, EAID, AORC, NP, Bhutanese Refugees 
SUBJECT: VISIT WITH JAILED BHUTANESE REFUGEE S.K. PRADHAN 
 
REF: A. KATHMANDU 425 
 
     B. 01 KATHMANDU 1913 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Michael E. Malinowski, Reasons 1.5 (b), (d). 
 
1. (C) Summary.  In a meeting with Embassy visitors to his 
jail in southeastern Nepal, prominent Bhutanese refugee and 
human rights activist S.K. Pradhan protested his innocence in 
the case of another refugee leader's murder.  Pradhan said he 
had nothing to gain from the man's death and did not 
understand what drove the late leader's associate to file a 
complaint against more than forty individuals, including 
himself.  Pradhan has been treated well during his detention, 
a fact he ascribes to his jailers' belief that he is getting 
a raw deal.  Problems with Nepal's civil code and criminal 
procedures have prevented him from enjoying due process, he 
asserted.  Well-connected internationally, Pradhan has 
marshaled wide support, including from prominent Nepalis and 
even Government of Nepal (GON) officials.  Pradhan is largely 
a prisoner of an ineffective legal system, though his case 
also reflects divisions within the Bhutanese refugee 
community that are a microcosm of the factionalism that 
afflicts Nepal's politics.  End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) Poloff and visiting DRL/PHD Officer Gianni Paz met 
jailed Bhutanese refugee and human rights activist S.K. 
Pradhan at the Jhapa District branch jail during a recent 
visit to southeastern Nepal.  Pradhan was arrested September 
19, 2001, and charged with conspiracy in the September 9, 
2001 murder of R.K. Budhatoki, another refugee activist (Ref 
B).  Pradhan's arrest came after an associate of Budhatoki 
filed a complaint naming 43 individuals as parties to the 
conspiracy (Ref A).  Altogether eleven individuals remain in 
custody under this complaint. 
 
Pradhan Protests Prosecution 
---------------------------- 
 
3. (C) Pradhan denied any involvement in Budathoki,s murder, 
for which he said he was falsely implicated.  Budathoki was 
not an enemy, he told us, and besides he would have nothing 
to gain from Budathoki,s death.  Altogether nine Bhutanese 
refugees were arrested; all now reside in the same jail as 
Pradhan.  The killer had reportedly gone to India, Pradhan 
had heard.  Pradhan said he tried - without success - to 
contact the person who filed the complaint.  He did not know 
what drove the man, whose name is Poudel, to file a complaint 
against more than 40 people, including Pradhan himself: 
"that,s the hundred million dollar question." 
 
4. (C) Relating the story of his confinement, Pradhan said 
that a group of men in plainclothes came to his house and 
told him he was under arrest.  He asked the men to show 
identification and a warrant, both of which they refused to 
produce.  Pradhan then contacted officers at his local police 
post, who came to the house and positively identified the men 
as police.  Only after he was put in detention did he learn 
that a complaint had been filed against him. 
 
Well-Treated in Jail 
-------------------- 
 
5. (C) Pradhan described conditions in the jail as good, and 
added that jailers and fellow inmates alike treat him with 
respect.  He had no health problems, and had not been beaten 
or tortured.  He occupies a "special room," less crowded than 
the others - but still shared with seventeen other men. 
Special arrangements have been made to allow Pradhan visits - 
including conjugal visits - and telephone privileges.  (Note: 
 On two occasions in the past, Emboff was permitted to speak 
to Pradhan on the telephone (Ref A).  End Note.) 
 
6. (C) Pradhan told us he believes he gets special treatment 
"because they think I am innocent."  He added that he is 
well-behaved and does not cause trouble.  His main complaint 
is that he is only allowed to write in Nepali, which is not 
his best language.  His outgoing letters are censored. 
Nepali human rights activists had visited him in the jail, 
including Sushil Pyakurel, a member of the Government,s 
Human Rights Commission.  Pradhan has access to a jail 
library, including works on Nepali law, and to 
English-language newspapers. 
 
Sees Shortcomings in Legal System 
--------------------------------- 
7. (C) Having read up on Nepal's legal system while in jail, 
Pradhan claimed to have found problems with both Nepal's 
criminal procedures and civil law.  Under the civil law, 
Pradhan said, an alien can be arrested on a simple charge, 
without evidence, and be imprisoned until trial.  Pre-trial 
investigations can take years.  (Note:  Under Nepali law 
aliens are not eligible for bail.)  He added that he had not 
been afforded due process.  He had no opportunities to 
examine the evidence against him or even to ask a judge for 
permission to see it.  During the hearings on his case held 
to date, he had not once been allowed to speak, he said.  In 
fact, the only time he was allowed to state his case was 
immediately after his arrest, when a police officer took his 
statement. 
 
World Travelers Garner International Sympathy 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
8. (C) In recent years Pradhan has been a regular on the 
international human rights circuit, including at UNCHR 
sessions in Geneva.  Just before his arrest he attended the 
World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in Durban, South 
Africa.  Previously a civil servant in Bhutan, Pradhan earned 
an M.P.A. at Penn State and also studied in India and the 
U.K.  Pradhan has been able to marshal his international 
contacts in support of efforts to gain his release.  Members 
of Nepal's elite and even government officials have voiced 
disbelief that Pradhan was involved in the murder.  The Chief 
District Officer for Jhapa stated that the murder of 
Budathoki and subsequent prosecution of S.K. Pradhan "must be 
a conspiracy carried out by the Bhutanese government." 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
9. (C) Were Pradhan not a refugee, he would have been able to 
walk free on bail soon after his arrest.  Nepali law does not 
afford bail to foreigners.  Moreover, a convoluted and opaque 
legal process has prevented Pradhan from responding to the 
complaint against him in a timely and meaningful fashion. 
Most Nepalis share Pradhan's despair about their courts' 
ability to dispense justice.  Even so, to some degree 
Pradhan's predicament is also a result of the factionalism 
that afflicts Nepali society.  The politics of the Bhutanese 
refugee camps - where nearly all the residents are ethnic 
Nepali - mirror those of Nepal itself, and Pradhan has 
apparently been the victim of another faction's desire to 
pull him down a notch. 
MALINOWSKI