This
update is written to update the international community on recent unrest in the
Terai region.[1] Protests took place in Kalaiya recently,
against a backdrop of several protestsin the Terai region this year. During
these protests, THRD Alliance (“THRDA”) has concluded that the police used
excessive use of force to suppress the largely peaceful protests and has unduly
interfered with the people’s right to peaceful assembly. While most of the protests
were related to the then-impending deadline for the drafting of the
Constitution on 22 January 2015, the recent protest in Kalaiya took place due
to development-related concerns.
There
also appears to be an increase in security operations in the Terai region, with
one operation resulting in the killing of a man and another causing several
women to be wounded by bullets.
Protests
Protest
related to Developmental Concerns: Kalaiya, 9 to 15 February 2015
These
protests took place from 9 to 15 February 2015, with noteworthy incidents
taking place between Bharat Chowk and DevkotaChowk of Kalaiya Municipality,
located in Bara district.[2]
These protests took place due to the Nepal government’s decision to shift the land
revenue, land survey and land reform offices from Kalaiya to Simara, and were
launched by the Bara Chamber of Commerce and Industry that was against this
decision. Locals (including members from political parties and business
persons) appeared on the streets from 9 February onwards in order to pressure
the government to retract their decision.
However,
on 13 February, the protests took on a more violent nature when some protestors
burned the van of Kantipur newspaper (the national daily of Nepal). In
response, the Nepal Police resorted to baton-charge and fired a dozen tear gas
shells. The next day, the protestors and the police clashed again with the
former lobbing stones and the latter resorting to baton-charge and firing more
than 50 tear gas canisters. The police claim that some of the local political
party’s offices (such as that of NC and UML) were vandalized by the protestors.
Several
protestors were injured, with some witnesses alleging that the number is closer
to a hundred. The names of the injured as obtained from the Bara District
Hospital include Shree Ram Shah, Manoj Shah, BinodSarraf, Mohan Shah, Aakash,
DhirajSahani, Pappu Yadav, Prabhu Shah, Baliram Shah and RauhfulMansuri who
have since been discharged. However, this is not reflective of the actual
numbers of those injured as many who visited the hospital for their injuries
had not been admitted and had since returned home. For example, both Naresh
Patel (a 22 year old from Kalaiya) and Pradeep Kumar Sah (a 23 year old from
Pipalpati VDC) were seriously injured on their backs and are on bed-rest at
home because they are unable to move much. A video of their beatings is
currently widely being circulated on social media[3]
which evidences a clear indication of excessive use of force. The police werefilmed
chasing the fleeing boys and beating them with batons and sticks when they were
on the ground. From the video, there is little evidence of any real threat
posed by these unarmed boys.
On
15 February 2015, Bara Chamber of Commerce and Industry announced its
withdrawal of the protests after the Prime Minister’s Office and the Council of
Ministers postponed its decision to shift the offices to Simara, and the
Ministry of Land Reform and Management thereafter sent a letter confirming that
the decision was not put on hold. Following this decision, the locals of
Kalaiya stopped their protests.Counter-protests have now emerged in Simara with
the locals there having launched a phase-wise protest that started yesterday
(17 February 2015) and have called for a general strike this Friday (20
February 2015) to protest the withdrawal of the decision.
There
is also a political edge to this issue, for Simara is largely dominated by
people from the hill community while Kalaiya is largely populated by people
from the Madhesi community. Criticism of the government decisions to gradually
shift its center of power within the Terai region to areas which are
hill-dominated has been made by a prominent political commentator, Tula Narayanan
Sah.[4]
There is cause for concern that these unresolved tensions between the people
ofKalaiya and Simara is symptomatic of underlying tension between the Madhesi
and Pahadi communities in the Terai region, and may worsen in the future.
Political
protests related to the Constitution Drafting Process
It
appears that several local political leaders from the opposition were targeted
during the recent protests in the Terai region, when there was a nation-wide
strike declared by the 30-Party Alliance on 12 January 2015. This is evidenced
by many of the injured persons comprising of such leaders, with one local political
leader dying after the beatings.
In
Dhanusha district, 26-year-old RajaramJha (the district level leader of the
political party TeraiMadhes Democratic Party (“TMDP”)) died at BhramarpuraChowk
in Janakpur during an initiallypeaceful protest. The protestors claimed that a
confrontation only took place after the police refused to let the protest go
ahead. They also claimed Jha was beaten up by the police on his private parts,
after which he fainted. Jha was then taken to the Janakpur Zonal Hospital where
he died. Upon hearing the news of his death, the protestors who had circled the
hospital started pelting stones at the police, in response to which the police
lobbed six rounds of tear gas. The unrest continued into the next day and the
strike was extended to 13 January. The hospital has yet to release the post
mortem report to the public.
KiranKarna,
a journalist from Janakpur, further reported that large numbers of plain
clothes policemen had been deployed in the period leading up to 22 January 2015
in order to “monitor the mood of local [political] leaders.” He added that many
of these policemen had removed their name tags from their uniforms in order to
conceal their identity.
Meanwhile
in Siraha, Rajlal Yadav, who is an ex-minister without portfolio and the
Central Committee member of the political party MadhesiJanadhikar Forum-Nepal
(MJF-N), had his leg fractured during a baton charge by police personnel. He
stated “I was participating in the protest and representing my party peacefully
on the road, when a policeman suddenly came to me and beat me on my knee with a
baton.” After that incident, several
people congregated at that spot with the protestors thereafter hurtling stones
at the police. A journalist Jibachh Yadav informed THRDA that the Armed Police
Force had been asked to attend the protests, and were pushed to use unnecessary
force on the protestors.
Excessive
use of force was also alleged in Kapilvastu in the Western Terai where Ramesh
RanjanBarma (the district president of TMDP) was injured, with his left hand
broken after a baton charge by the police. He informed THRDA: “I was just
participating in the rally peacefully organized by the 30-Party Alliance when
the police charged at us with their batons.”
Increase
in Security Operations
Alleged
Extra-Judicial Killing in Sarlahi
There
is cause for concern regarding the recent killing by the state forces of ChhatuSahani
(a Dalit) from Sarlahi district on 14 February 2015. This development comes in
the wake of the recent killing of RajaramJha (a district level leader of the
political party TeraiMadhes Democratic Party) from Dhanusha district on 12
January 2015 (as detailed above), torture resulting in the extra-judicial
killing of MadhuTajpuriya from Sijuwa in Morang district on 24 October 2014,
and the excessive use of force resulting in the killing of Jaya Narayan Patel
from Simrangaudh in Bara district on 11 October 2014. These cases indicate that
there is a re-emerging trend of extra-judicial killings in the Terai region,
after a long gap of several months since the last recorded case. This trend
persists despite the recommendations of the UN Human Rights Committee[5]
and UN OHCHR.[6]
A
resident of Rautahat (allegedly associated with an armed group and on whom two
guns were allegedly found), Sahani was shot dead in Khairba. Around the time of
the incident, 5 plain clothes policemen asked passersby not to pass through
that road (near Bagmati Dam). A witness informed THRDA that a scuffle between
two men was observed in the distance, although the witness fled the scene after
a gunshot was heard. It is still unclear whether the gunshot heard by the
witness was fired by Sahani or one of the policemen. While one of the five
police officers at the scene of the incident reported that his ring finger was
broken, none of the police officers had any bullet injuries.
The
post mortem of the body was conducted at the Sarlahi District Hospital, with
five bullets allegedly found in his body although witnesses claimed that there
might be more. There was a bullet fired in his left temple that passed through
the right temple, a bullet fired into his back that exited the front of his
chest, a bullet that passed through the back of his leg and another that
resulted in the fracture of his upper left arm. The hospital administration
said it was unable to comment on the remaining bullets. It is cause for concern
that there were so many bullets fired at areas of the body that are almost
certainly fatal, and one bullet having been fired into his back which may
indicate that the victim was trying to flee.
When
THRDA requested for permission to observe the dead body in the hospital, the
police personnel stationed in the hospital informed the co-ordinator that
permission had to be obtained from the District Police Office of Sarlahi first.
However, the Superintendent Suresh Basnet and Inspector BirendraThakur
respectively from the District Police Office did not respond adequately to the
calls and subsequently switched off their phones.Investigations are still
ongoing.
Security
Operation regarding alleged storage of illegal materials in Parsa
On
20 January 2015, the National Human Rights Commission (“NHRC”) was alerted that
about a dozen plainclothes policemen had fired 67 rounds of bullets at Tharuvillagers
from Harpur-8 in Parsa district at midnight. The police alleged that large
numbers of illegal materials (such as elephant ivory and the skins of rhinos
and tigers) had been stored in the village, and they had wanted to conduct an
investigation. However, the police did not actually report that they indeed
found such materials during their investigations. One man, Suresh Tharu, was
arrested and now remains in detention.
The
67 bullets were fired during raids on the villagers’ homes. Consequently,
Premina Chaudhary, Indradevi Chaudhary, Dukhi Devi Chaudhary and Dipni Devi
Tharuni were wounded by the bullets. It has been reported that the Chief
District Officer had not given any orders to open fire.[7]
However, the alleged aggressive behavior of the Central Investigation Bureau
(“CIB”) in searching the homes of the villages and beating up the women and children resulted in a backlash that necessitated members of
the accompanying Nepal Police (providing cover to the CIB) opening fire on the
villagers.
THRDA
looks forward to receiving the report of NHRC recording its conclusions on the
investigations, and the proposed interventions.
Conclusion
With
scheduled protests announced by the opposition to take place at the end of this
month on 28 February 2014, a possible scenario for further violence has been
created. As such, THRDA suggests that this would be an opportune time for the
international community to intervene and ease persisting tensions. In
particular, recommendations that the maintenance of law and order requires the
use of force that is proportionate to any perceived security threat should be
made on an urgent basis. Instead of tackling contentious issues through the use
of the security apparatus, a solution should be found via negotiations and
consensus.
[1]The monitoring was conducted by
Chairperson DipendraJha and Human Rights Officer Randhir Chaudhary during field
visits to Dhanusha, Siraha, Saptari and Morang districts from 30 January to 1
February 2015, and by the Regional Co-OrdinatorsShailendraHarijan andAvinashKarn
during the relevant periods.
[2] For further reference, the press notes
released in Nepali by the National Human Rights Commission of Nepal and THRDA
on 16 February 2015 are set out at http://www.nhrcnepal.org/nhrc_new/doc/newsletter/Bara%20press%20release%20NHRC.PDF and https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=844595478919379&set=a.183122458400021.38873.100001068031773&type=1&theater respectively.
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