9 SEPTEMBER 2015
A THRD Alliance team visited Bara, Parsa and Rauthat districts to monitor
inexplicable use of curfew and recorded first hand information on the situation
of human rights in the Terai in the face of the ongoing agitation launched by
Madhesi and Tharu people on 9 August. A total of 12 protesters have been killed
in this part of the Central and East Terai. THRD Alliance was able to
investigate seven of them.
There is serious concern that at least two out of the protesters killed on
31 August and 1 September (Raj Kishor Thakur in Rauthat and Dilip Chaurasiya in
Parsa) in police firing were hit in the back. This suggests that the Nepal
Police and Armed Police Force were shooting when people were fleeing rather
than posing an imminent threat to life. One victim was shot twice while he lay
injured on the ground (Hefajat Miya Ansari in Bara). All victims were found to have
sustained bullet injuries above the knee in the head, chest and stomach, further
suggesting that police were not minimizing their use of lethal force, as
required under both international standards and national law.
Although the government has imposed a curfew in some district
headquarters of the Terai, mainly to ease supplies getting to Kathmandu, the
blocking of roads with trees and boulders by the local people, including by
many youth suggest that the people of Madhes are supporting the ongoing
agitation. Because the agitation has now become a matter of prestige for the
Madhesi and Tharu people, the cadres of the agitating parties have brought food
to the main centers of the district and are camping on the street to try to
ensure the success of their agitation.
However, since this is a time to cultivate their crops, it will be costly for
these rural cadres to remain on the street for long.
Parsa
Five people died in Birgunj as a result of police opening fire on 31 August and 1
September. Dilip Chaurasiya, 28, a local resident of Parsa’s Maniyari VDC, was
shot in the back near Parsa DDC on 31 August. He was rushed to Narayani
Sub-regional Hospital, where he died. Dharma Raj Singh (30, of Bhawanipur,
Maniyari), Bhola Prasad Sah and Dinanath Sah were killed at Laxmanuwa Chowk in
Birgunj on 1 September. Sohan Kalbar died on the spot after being reportedly hit
by a police bullet at Naguwa Chowk on the same day.
According to Dinesh Chandra Giri
(local leader of the CPN-UML), the local residents of Parsa districts had
initiated a protest, including by blocking the highway during the daytime from mid-August.
At night the administration escorted lorries past the blockades to ensure supplies
to Kathmandu.
From 28 August, all Madhesi leaders had agreed to gather near Ghantaghar,
Birgunj and organize a political gathering, which had initially attracted around
4-500 people. Protestors had also organized a peaceful sit-in on the road near
Nagwa, Birgunj to block any type of supplies to Kathmandu. In the evening
police started removing the protestors, using a baton charge. Police also
opened fire on the protestors after which Amiri Lal Raut[1] fell
down after receiving pellets in his stomach. Along with him, 15 more people were
injured. From that day (28 August), this
area was declared as prohibited by the local administration and on the next day
(29 August) a curfew was imposed.
Because of the curfew, the local residents became angry and claimed that,
if they were not able to protest, the state was not going to give them any
rights. With this anger, the protestors forced the police to withdraw from the
Ranighat Police Station.
They also set Parsa CPN-UML's party office on fire. During this incident, Dilip Chaurasiya, a
local resident of Birgunj, a resident of Maniyari-25, Birgunj received a bullet
in his back.
The death of Dilip Chaurasiya on 31 August caused more unrest with people
from different neighboring villages joining the agitation on 1 September. The
situation became tense during this day. There was a clash between police and the
protestors when the agitators defied the curfew order at around 7:30 am.
On the same day (1 September) Shanta Lal Yadav was injured when police
opened fire on the people sitting at Inarwa
chowk, Birgunj.
After such occurrences the local residents of Parsa district were
incensed and their leaders along with the local residents said that they did
not want any police offices in Parsa. Laxman Lal Karna, the deputy president of
Sadbhavana Party, stated that the root causes of such incidents are the
proposed seven state federal model and the efforts of the state to ensure that
supplies continued to reach Kathmandu.
Bara
The proposed seven states federal set-up, also caused the local residents
of Kalaiya, headquarters of Bara district, to become agitated. Pramod Gupta,
the ex-constituent assembly member from the Federal Socialist Forum, Nepal,
stated: “peaceful protest and corner assemblies were taking place. Every day,
100-150 protestors joined the protest and by the evening of 31 August at Kalaiya
chowk, we (the political parties) had organized laathi julus and
around 20,000 people from different villages had joined the rally. It was a completely
peaceful rally without incident ”
On 31
August at 4pm, around 30 protestors gathered near Dharmasala Chowk, to
continue the agitation. Suddenly, a group of police arrived and immediately
resorted to a baton charge. Everyone was shocked. The protestors were scattered
after the laathi charge. Then the protestors pelted the police with
stones. Police opened fire on the scattered
agitators and Hefajat Miya Ansari initially sustained a bullet injury in his right elbow. Eyewitnesses said
police fired another two shots at him after he fell to the ground. This
video shows a period in the aftermath of this killing. Hefajat Miya’s body lay
on the ground for half an hour before a police vehicle arrived to take it
away. The video
linked below shows the
last four and a half minutes of this period.
https://video-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-xtf1/v/t42.3356-2/11851871_980272591993681_1804661527_n.mp4/video-1441687384.mp4.mp4?vabr=277205&oh=57c99609f7cc21e79383eec120295bb6&oe=55F031E6&dl=1
https://video-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hvideo-xtf1/v/t42.3356-2/11851871_980272591993681_1804661527_n.mp4/video-1441687384.mp4.mp4?vabr=277205&oh=57c99609f7cc21e79383eec120295bb6&oe=55F031E6&dl=1
The images in the video are deeply disturbing, and raise serious
questions about police discipline and the effectiveness of commanders’ control
of their men. The police are shown making repeated obscene gestures at
the unseen demonstrators. In Nepalese culture, the gestures seen are considered
to be very offensive. The police can be seen directing an endless stream of
invective at the demonstrators and eyewitnesses said that the language used was
racist in the extreme. There is no attempt made to treat the body with
any respect. At one stage, some 20 police can be seen gathered round it as if
it was some sort of spectacle. Eyewitnesses said that in the period of 25
minutes before this video was taken, police were seen kicking the body and that
DSP Binodh Sharma urinated on it; an allegation THRD Alliance was not able to
confirm.
On the same day (1 September) Rajababu Sah (aged 14), a juvenile of
Kalaiya 10, received a pellet injury in his cheek when police opened fire on
the scattered protestors. Three police personnel from the Nepal Police were
involved in this incident. Abhinandan Kumar Gupta (a local resident of
Kalaiya-6), a witness, stated that two of them had masks, two carried guns and
each one carried a baton.
Rauthat
According to local leaders, the reason for the protests in Rauthat was
the same: the proposed seven state federal model. On 24 August, the protestors
had gathered in Gaur, the headquarters of Rauthat district, to paint
"Madhes Sarkar" on the official board of the government offices. A
large number of women participated in this demonstration. The protestors carried
"symbolic swords" (made of wood). Yogendra Yadav, the central member
of Sadbhawana Party said that until 4 pm the protest was peaceful, Yogendra
Yadav stated: “Suddenly, police started resorted to a baton charge on the protestors,
which resulted in around sixty five protestors receiving injuries from rubber
bullets.” At around 4:30 pm Rauthat was
declared as a riot-hit area.
The campaign of replacing the government offices board with "Madhes
Sarkar" was continued on 25 August despite the declaration of a riot-hit
area. The CDO had also imposed a curfew
in Gaur. Despite this, thousands of protestors defied the curfew and came to
replace the office boards. The
protestors were stopped at a distance of 500 meters from the BP chowk.
The situation became tense. The protestors started pelting stones at the police
and security reinforcements opened fire on the protestors.
Raj kishor Thakur, a bystander, was killed by police fire while he was
making a phone call. (See box 3) Thakur’s dead body was kept in the hospital
for a week and no one had access to the hospital as it was totally controlled
by security forces.
Conclusion
The prolonged general strike has made life very difficult in the southern
plains. There is severe shortage of essentials and medicines. Shops and
factories are closed. Daily wage earners have difficulty managing two meals a
day. Protesters have set fire to the police stations and government
offices. Because of fear of attack, the
APF and Nepal police evacuated their personnel from some of its bases in the
district in Rauthat, Bara and Parsa.
Locals refused to rent their houses to police and refused to sell daily
goods to them. This makes police life difficult. Government officials including
judges are returning to Kathmandu due to continuous attack on government
offices by the protesters. The protesters have also targeted NC and UML party
offices.
In Parsa, Bara and Rauthat, it was found that police opened fire, hitting
people in the back. The Local Administration Act has laid down steps to follow in
crowd control the mob, setting out. In none of the protests in the Terai
investigated by THRD Alliance, was tear gas or a water cannon used to disperse
the mob; rather the security forces used lathis
and then immediately resorted to life live ammunition.
Moreover, the state needs to think about the scale and nature of the escalating
protest. The situation is more dangerous than the state thinks. For instance,
Bhairahwa has been declared as a prohibited area, there is no agitation. Most
of the rural areas of Nawalparasi, Kapilvastu, Rupandehi, Parsa and Bara are
extremely tense. Because of the excessive use of force by police, people are
angry and more violence can erupt at anytime.
The way Kalaiya residents have decided that their market will not provide
any types of service to police personnel should be a matter of deep concern to
the police.
On Saturday, the last day of the deadline for registering amendment
proposals on the draft constitution, the big three parties had the chance to
show some flexibility by extending the deadline even by a few days. Over 20,000
people took part in the funeral procession in Birgunj on that day, but the big
three parties and the government ignored this event and went ahead as scheduled.
This has further angered people in Madhes. The general perception in the Terai
is that "the demands of Karnali and Mid-Western region people,
particularly the residents of Surkhet, were addressed but the demands of
Madhesis and Tharus have been ignored"; “police use water to disperse mass
protests in Kathmandu, but fire live bullets in the Terai. why this different treatment?"
These are the questions we heard everywhere. If the big three parties continue
to ignore the concerns of the Madhesi and Tharu people, that could cause further
anger which could lead to communal clashes in the southern plains.
Recommendations
To the international community:
1. Bring the three parties/government
and the agitating Madhesi, Tharu and Janajati groups to the negotiating table
to find a solution to the key issues regarding the Constitution, including
federal boundaries, citizenship, proportional inclusion and demarcation of
electoral constituencies.
2.
Advice the government
to create a suitable environment for the aggrieved groups to come back into the
constitution process.
3. Encourage the security forces to minimize
the use of lethal force, as required under both international standards and
national law.
4. Ask the protesting parties to seek a
peaceful resolution; to ensure no children take part; not to stop the public from
renting rooms and selling daily goods to the security forces.
5.
Ask
the Constituent Assembly to consider allowing the
necessary time to facilitate solutions to the current stand-off.
NHRC
1.
Carry
out impartial and credible monitoring of protests in terms of International
principles regarding crowd control and Excessive Use of Force by state security
forces and possible
misuse/inappropriate use of curfews
2.
Immediately investigate the killings
at Parsa, Bara, Rauthat, Tikapur, Bhardha and Bhairhwa and recommend
prosecution of those responsible for the deliberate or indiscriminate killing
of protesters and excessive use of force.
3.
Release
the report as soon as possible with a specific recommendation to use lethal
force only when absolutely necessary to protect life.
4.
Recommend
compensation to the victims’ families.
The government
1. Reverse the 24 hours curfews and unnecessary
prohibitory order at a time when people are expressing their concern on the
constitution.
2. The government should immediately
provide compensation to the victims and provide a rehabilitation package to the
family members of those who were killed.
3. Ensure proper treatment of the injured.
The security forces
1.
All law enforcement officials should comply with
Nepal’s obligations under international law to use force only when necessary
for legitimate aims and, even where force is warranted, to only use only the
minimal force necessary in order to ensure public safety and protection of the
rights and freedoms of others.
2.
Any police found to have engaged in racist abuse
should be immediately suspended and charged with a disciplinary offence.
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