CCPR/C/112/D/2051/2011
The facts as submitted by the authors
2.1
As a result of the armed conflict prevailing in the country, the State party’s
authorities declared a state of emergency in November 2001. The Terrorist and Disruptive
Activities (Prevention and Control) Ordinance allowed State agents to arrest individuals on
the basis of mere suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities, and various
constitutionally granted human rights and freedoms were suspended. Against that
background, both parties to the conflict, including the police and the Royal Nepalese Army
(RNA), committed atrocities and enforced disappearances became a widespread
phenomenon.1 In 2003, the RNA Bhairavnath Battalion barracks in Kathmandu, also known
as the Maharajgunj barracks (the barracks), became notorious as a place in which persons
suspected of being Maoists were detained, severely ill-treated, tortured, disappeared and
killed.2
2.2
Jit Man Basnet was a journalist and the founder of the newspaper Sagarmatha
Times. He also worked as a human rights lawyer in a law firm in Kathmandu. Top Bahadur
Basnet is his cousin. They grew up living in the same house as one family. On 4 February
2004, Jit Man Basnet was approached by three persons wearing the Army’s uniform in
front of his house. They started insulting him whilst people gathered to watch his arrest. He
was blindfolded and forced to get into an army vehicle. He was taken to the Bhairavnath
Battalion barracks. He was not informed of the grounds for his arrest.
2.3
In his first night at the barracks, Jit Man Basnet was questioned about Maoist
activities and locations by the Army’s personnel. As he denied any knowledge thereon, they
kicked him and hit him with bamboo sticks and polythene pipes, pushed his head into a
drum full of dirty, smelly water and threatened to kill him. He was intermittently
unconscious. During the first night, he received a phone call from a co-worker, Mr. G.L.,
and managed to tell that person that he was in a “tense situation” before the guards cut off
the phone. On 5 February 2004, Mr. G.L. informed the Basnet family about the arrest.
Since the family did not have more information about his arrest, they presumed that he had
been arrested by the Army. Top Bahadur Basnet visited several organizations and
authorities to discover his cousin’s whereabouts, without success.
2.4
Over the next two days, Jit Man Basnet was again interrogated and subjected to
torture and severe ill-treatment for several hours. On one occasion, Colonel R.B. threatened
him with being tortured to death, as had happened to another journalist. During the full
duration of his detention that lasted 258 days, he was kept in inhuman conditions of
detention and suffered more torture. He had to spend days and nights lying on a thin
mattress on the floor, with his hands handcuffed behind his back and blindfolded. In winter,
with the temperature below zero, he was kept in a tent with holes in the roof and provided
with only a thin blanket to sleep in. Food was of very poor quality and served in small
quantities. There was only one toilet for more than 100 detainees. Furthermore, he was
prevented from having any contact with the outside world, including his family and legal
representatives. Detainees were not allowed to talk among themselves and they were moved
and hidden in different areas of the barracks each time the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC) visited the barracks.
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2
The authors refer to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances report on its visit
to Nepal, 28 January 2005 (E/CN.4/2005/65/Add.1), para. 25, and the Special Rapporteur on torture
and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, report on his visit to Nepal, 9 January
2006 (E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.5), para. 17.
The authors refer to the OHCHR report of investigation into arbitrary detention, torture and
disappearance at Maharajgunj RNA barracks, Kathmandu, in 2003–2004, published in May 2006.
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