US embassy cable - 05KATHMANDU1238

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 001238 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/07/2015 
TAGS: Maoist Insurgency 
SUBJECT: NEPAL POLICE ARREST MAOIST VICTIM PROTESTORS 
 
REF(S): A) KATHMANDU 01121  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.8   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,s 13th 
point was &to heartily thank all the friendly countries for 
supporting their joint movement against King's dictatorship.8 
 
Comment 
---------- 
 
7. (C)  Although the arrest of Maoist victims is unrelated to 
prospects for reconciliation among Nepal,s political forces, 
it is nevertheless troubling. The government,s action is 
front page news in Nepal, with the June 6 edition of the 
English language &The Himalayan8 newspaper carrying a 
photograph of plainclothes police personnel arresting a 
mother and child from the Maoist Victims Association rally. 
 
MILLARD