US embassy cable - 03KATHMANDU623

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KATHMANDU 000623 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SA/INS 
STATE ALSO PASS USAID - ANE/SA 
LONDON FOR POL - GURNEY 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/03/2012 
TAGS: PHUM, EAID, SOCI, PGOV, PTER, NP, Maoist Insurgency 
SUBJECT: NEPAL:  CEASEFIRE SEES INCREASE IN TORTURE CLAIMS 
 
Classified By: DCM ROBERT K. BOGGS.  REASON:  1.5 (B,D). 
 
-------- 
SUMMARY 
-------- 
 
1. (C) Summary:  PolOff and USAID Mission's Deputy Director 
of Special Programs Office met with the program director of 
the USAID-supported Center for Victims of Torture (CVICT) in 
Biratnagar, Morang District, on March 27-28 to discuss the 
center's operation since the January 29 cease fire between 
Maoist insurgents and government forces.  The center offers 
legal and medical assistance, as well as psychological 
counseling, to victims of the insurgency.  An increasing 
number of victims has approached the center since travel 
restrictions were lifted after the ceasefire, and several 
have filed torture-related charges against government 
authorities.  Women and children are among the worst-affected 
by the conflict, but are underrepresented among CVICT's 
clients.  Victims of Maoist abuses are also underrepresented, 
as many are too frightened to seek help.  End summary. 
 
CENTER SEES VICTIMS FROM BOTH SIDES 
----------------------------------- 
 
2.  (SBU) On March 27 and 28, PolOff and the Deputy Director 
of Special Programs Office for the USAID Mission met with Dr. 
Bidur Osti, Program Director of the USAID-supported Center 
for Victims of Torture (CVICT) in the southern city of 
Biratnagar, Morang District.  Originally founded in the early 
nineties to address torture as defined by the Convention 
Against Torture (CAT), the center initially offered aid 
primarily to victims of the police or other government 
entities.  As insurgency-related violence has escalated, 
however, CVICT has expanded its activities to offer legal, 
medical and counseling services to men and women victimized 
by government forces and/or the Maoists, as well as 
occasional victims of other crimes. 
 
3.  (U) USAID supports CVICT through a USD $600,000 
cooperative agreement.  The agreement covers medical and 
psychosocial treatment for 500 torture victims at the 
Biratnagar sub-center; twelve mobile clinics; six 
fact-finding missions to investigate and report on incidents 
of abuse; training for 100 medical professionals in the 
examination, identification, documentation and reporting of 
torture cases; and a facility in Kathmandu for shelter-based 
treatment of female trauma victims.  Under the program to 
date, 93 torture survivors have received treatment at the 
Biratnagar sub-center, and 231 have been treated by the 
mobile clinics.  A total of three fact-finding missions has 
been conducted, while 100 medical professionals have 
completed training. 
 
4.  (SBU) Osti reported that the center has been doing brisk 
business, especially now that restrictions on travel have 
been lifted as a result of the cease fire.  The courtyard of 
the small building that houses the center is regularly full 
of victims waiting for their chance to see the doctors and 
counselors that the center provides free of charge.  Osti has 
worked at the center for three years, and says that the 
profile of victims has changed over time.  While in the past 
the center rarely saw victims of torture by the Maoists, the 
number has increased dramatically, and the brutality of the 
cases is very high.  Cases perpetrated by the army, which 
were almost unheard of three years ago, are now more numerous 
as well. 
 
FEW LEGAL CASES FILED 
--------------------- 
 
5.  (C) Very few of the victims pursue legal action, despite 
the possibility of compensation of up to 100,000 NRs (1300 
USD).  According to the center's legal advisor, only about 10 
percent of CVICT's clients file complaints.  The large 
majority of victims choose to avoid the possibility of 
provoking additional harassment by accusing their torturers, 
while those who do choose to file are often threatened, 
pressured or bribed into withdrawing their cases.  Though 
CVICT offers medical and counseling services to victims of 
both sides of the conflict, legal cases are filed only 
against government perpetrators.  Maoist violence does not 
fall under the definition of torture in the CAT and, more 
practically, Maoist perpetrators are both difficult to bring 
to court and unlikely to pay any compensation. 
 
6.  (C) For many of the clients who puruse legal cases 
despite threats against their persons and property, the goal 
is psychological gratification more than monetary 
compensation.  According to Osti, security forces in the 
region "operate with complete impunity."  Soldier or police 
who are accused of improper behavior are rarely punished by 
their superiors, Osti said, and victims often want nothing 
more than to see them declared guilty. Even in cases where 
compensation is awarded by the courts, some victims choose 
not to accept the money, especially since accepting it would 
mean a trip to the police station to submit related 
paperwork.  "It's enough that I won the case," said one such 
victim, according to Osti. "I don't want the money. I don't 
ever want to see the police again." 
 
7.  (C) Stories from a few of the victims illustrate the 
reasons for the fear and mistrust of at least some of the 
police in the region.  A journalist at the center had been 
imprisoned for fourteen months during the nine-month State of 
Emergency, apparently on suspicion of being a Maoist.  No 
charges were ever filed against him.  He was at the center to 
file a legal case against the Superintendent of Police (SP) 
in another district, and had already been threatened with 
violence by the SP in an attempt to force him to withdraw the 
charges.  An elderly villager who arrived at the center for 
medical treatment had spent eleven months in jail in the same 
district, also with no official charges or explanation.  He 
is filing a case against the same SP.  The officer in 
question has a history with CVICT, Osti said, charging that 
when he was stationed in Chitwan, the SP was accused of a 
brutal beating.  He lost the case, and was forced to pay 
compensation. 
 
WOMEN AND CHILDREN AMONG WORST-AFFECTED 
--------------------------------------- 
 
8.  (SBU) Most of the victims who seek assistance from CVICT 
are men.  Only about 12-15 percent of the center's clients 
are women, despite estimates that 30 percent of torture 
victims are women.  Part of the reason for the disparity is 
the difficulty faced by women traveling alone.  More often, 
however, female victims simply have a hard time convincing 
their husbands that they need medical assistance.  The 
problem is compounded if a women seeks psychological 
counseling, Osti said. "Women are just told that they are 
lazy and don't want to work, and that is why they are trying 
to get counseling.  Psychosocial problems are just not 
considered a health issue in our country, and especially not 
for women." 
 
9.  (C) Though CVICT does not typically treat young children, 
the center has treated a large number of Maoist cadres 
between the ages of 14 and 18.  Osti said he had no solid 
evidence of organized recruitment of minors by the Maoists, 
but he admits that the insurgency has had a devastating 
effect on Nepal's children.  In one illustrative incident in 
Bandipur, central Tanahu district, a CVICT fact-finding 
mission came across a 12-year-old boy drunk at 10 o'clock in 
the morning.  He told the CVICT team that he started drinking 
a year ago, and now drinks every day.  When asked why, the 
boy replied that if the Maoists see him drunk, they will 
think he is a "spoiled child" and not suitable for their 
ranks.  If the army sees him drunk, they will think he is not 
a Maoist, and will leave him alone. 
 
10.  (SBU) In studies carried out in Nepalganj, Surkhet and 
Dolakha, CVICT found that children had stopped playing 
typical games like football and cricket, and instead 
exclusively played "Army versus the Maoists."  At least one 
boy had cut his sister with a knife because she was cast as a 
Maoist in their daily game.  "If the cease fire holds, there 
is a need for a massive program of psychosocial 
rehabilitation," said Osti about the coming generation. 
"Everything is about revenge for these kids." 
 
LOCAL EFFECTS OF CEASE FIRE; 
GON TOLERANCE AND GON OBSTRUCTIONS 
---------------------------------- 
 
11.  (SBU) For Osti, the most significant effect of the 
recent cease fire has been the reduction in the amount of 
terrorist violence around Biratnagar.  Though incidents of 
violence still occur, Osti says that many of the perpetrators 
are actually hooligans. "They were here robbing and causing 
trouble before the Maoists ever were, and they don't obey the 
Maoist commanders," he said.  Osti added that while there is 
much hope that the cease fire and peace talks will succeed, 
there is also a great deal of suspicion about the motives on 
both sides of the negotiating table. 
12.  (U) Also as a result of the cease fire, travel 
restrictions have been eliminated, and victims have been able 
to move more freely.  An increasing number have sought help 
from the center in Biratnagar and from CVICT mobile clinics 
set up in district headquarters around the country.  The 
clinics have had their share of problems, however.  In one 
case, a district prison authority asked CVICT to organize a 
mobile clinic to treat prisoners who were released at the end 
of the State of Emergency.  As soon as the all-day clinic was 
completed and the CVICT team left the area, however, the 
authorities confiscated all of the medication that had been 
handed out to the prisoners. 
 
13.  (C) The center has occasionally met with disapproval 
from individual members of government, and has instituted a 
secret filing system to protect the identities of their 
 
SIPDIS 
clients from authorities seeking to intimidate.  In general, 
however, the center enjoys the GON's tolerance and support by 
many members.  The reason is clear, according to Osti: about 
one-third of elected officials are CVICT's former clients. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
14. (C) CVICT has a well-deserved reputation for neutrality 
in treating victims of torture from both sides of the 
conflict, but the sample of people seeking treatment at the 
center in Biratnagar is not necessarily an accurate profile 
of torture victims nationwide.  The prevalence of alleged 
victims of state violence seeking CVICT's help should not be 
taken as a definitive indication that victims of Maoist 
violence are fewer in number, or have been treated less 
severely, any more than the prevalence of men indicates that 
women and children have not suffered.  On the contrary, 
anecdotal evidence suggests that the brutality of Maoists in 
the field has left many of their victims terrified and 
unwilling to risk retaliation.  CVICT's challenge under the 
cease fire and in the future will be to reach those victims 
who cannot or will not seek out assistance on their own. 
MALINOWSKI