US embassy cable - 05KATHMANDU1236

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 001236 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/07/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PINS, PHUM, PREF, NP, Maoist Insurgency 
SUBJECT: NEPAL POLICE ARREST MAOIST VICTIM PROTESTORS 
 
REF: A. A. KATHMANDU 01121 
     B. B. KATHMANDU 01194 
 
Classified By: Charge Elisabeth Millard.  Reasons 1.4 (b/d) 
 
1. (U)  Summary.  Fifty-three Maoist Victim Association 
protestors were arrested by police on the grounds that they 
had no permission to be in a restricted area in Kathmandu 
on June 5.  However, Nepali political parties held a mock 
parliament event on June 3 in which 19 National Assembly 
members and 132 lawmakers from the House of Representatives 
participated in Kathmandu on June 3 without police 
interference.    End Summary. 
 
Third Arrest of Maoist Victims Association Protestors 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
2.  (SBU) Approximately 200 people gathered in an area of 
Kathmandu banned for protests on Sunday, June 5 in a 
peaceful sit down demonstration to ask the government to 
provide Maoist victims food, shelter and information on the 
status of internal refugees.  Police arrested 12 of the 
protestors, including the acting president of the Maoist 
Victims Association, Dharma Raj Neupane, for  protesting in 
a prohibited area.   (Note: Police had also arrested and 
released Neupane on the same grounds on May 13 and May 26. 
End note.)    According to the spokesman of the Maoist 
Victims Association, police later returned and forcibly 
confiscated tents and other shelter materials and arrested 
about 40 additional protestors, including children and 
elderly individuals.  Those arrested were taken to 
Kharipati, Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley, where they 
remained in custody as of June 7. 
 
3.  (SBU)  The Maoist Victims Association used the death of 
a Maoist victim, Gana Bahadur Gharti, 32, who died June 1, 
as a catalyst to protest on June 5. Gharti might have died 
as a result of injuries sustained on May 29 by government 
security forces in a Kathmandu protest (as claimed by the 
Maoist Victims Association) or from a heart attack (as 
claimed by the Birendra Police Hospital after an autopsy.) 
 
4. (C)  The Home Ministry spokesman, Gopendra Bahadur 
Pandey, told PolOff that the local administrator took 
action against the protestors in order to prevent 
objectionable activities.  He said that there were 
currently 53 people in custody in Kharipati.  That number 
did not include 4 or 5 children who were with their parents 
in custody. The children themselves were not in custody, 
but accompanying their parent, whose choice was to keep the 
children with them. Pandey said that the Home Ministry was 
working to provide additional relief to internally 
displaced people. 
 
5. (SBU) Political parties and human rights groups have 
reacted strongly to the arrests.  CPN-UML Party Office 
Secretary Kashinath Adhikari condemned the government for 
 
SIPDIS 
using force on people who were internally displaced from 
their homes due to Maoist actions.  The National Coalition 
of Human Rights Defenders, formerly known as the group of 
25 human rights organizations, condemned the ongoing 
repressive actions of the state against internally 
displaced persons. 
 
Mock Parliament Event Peaceful 
--------------------------------- 
 
6. (U) The mock session of the parliament organized by the 
political parties in a street in Patan in the Kathmandu 
Valley on June 3 passed peacefully with no interference 
from the police.   Altogether, 19 former National Assembly 
members and 132 former lawmakers from the House of 
Representatives participated in the mock parliamentary 
session.   They represented 95 percent of the political 
parties which had ever held a seat in parliament.  Chaired 
by Deputy Speaker of the dissolved House of Representatives 
Chitra Lekha Yadav, the session, as expected (Ref B,) 
endorsed the common agenda of the seven political parties 
and passed a 13-point resolution unanimously declaring that 
the reinstatement of the parliament, and the Constitution 
of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990, would be the starting point 
to resolve the current problems faced by the country.  The 
mock parliament  13th point was  o heartily thank all the 
friendly countries for supporting their joint movement 
against King's dictatorship. 
 
Comment 
---------- 
 
7. (C)  Although the arrest of Maoist victims is unrelated 
to prospects for reconciliation among Nepal  political 
forces, it is nevertheless troubling. 
The government  action is front page news in Nepal, with 
the June 6 edition of the English language  he Himalayan 
newspaper carrying a photograph of plainclothes police 
personnel arresting a mother and child from the Maoist 
Victims Association rally. 
 
MILLARD