CCPR/C/119/D/2245/2013
1.2
On 2 October 2013, pursuant to rule 92 of its rules of procedure, the Committee,
acting through its Special Rapporteur on new communications and interim measures,
decided to reject the State party’s request to examine the admissibility of the case
separately from the merits.
The facts as presented by the author
2.1
The author was born in Dailekh district in mid-west Nepal. After getting married
and having a daughter, the family moved to nearby Jumla district. Two years into her
marriage, her husband married a second wife and the author returned to Dailekh district
with her daughter.
2.2
When the internal armed conflict began in Nepal in 1996 between the Communist
Party of Nepal (Maoist) and the Government of Nepal, supported by the Royal Nepalese
Army,2 the author was living with her daughter in Dailekh in a small shack, which also
served as a tea shop. The Maoists used to set off bombs in the forest near the author’s
village and members of the Royal Nepalese Army frequently visited her tea shop and asked
whether any Maoists stopped by her shop. They used to scold her and accuse her of being a
“spy for the Maoists”.
2.3. In September 2004, J.T., a lieutenant in the Royal Nepalese Army, came to the
author’s house and inquired about her husband and his alleged ties with the Maoists. The
author responded that her husband was working in Jumla district and living with his second
wife. The author was told to call her husband and tell him come to Dailekh within one
month or “she would suffer the consequences”. The author called her husband but was
unsuccessful in getting him to come to Dailekh. The Royal Nepalese Army inquired about
her husband’s whereabouts and made threats three more times. On those occasions, J.T.
would be accompanied by 40 to 60 soldiers. Each time, the author was unsuccessful in
getting her husband to come to Dailekh.
2.4. On 23 November 2004, at around 3 p.m., J.T. entered the author’s house, dragged
her from her room, accused her of being a Maoist and took her to the Bhawani Bakash
army barracks for further interrogation. Upon arrival at the barracks, she was blindfolded
and taken to a room. She was interrogated for about an hour by an army official about her
husband’s alleged connections with the Maoists, to which she declared that she did not
know anything. She was then interrogated by J.T. for another hour, after which, J.T. got
agitated and started to insult her. When she tried to lift the blindfold, he struck her with an
unknown object that left her bleeding from the middle finger of the right hand and from the
left eyebrow. He kicked her with his boots on and repeatedly punched her in the stomach,
back, legs and thighs. Then he ripped off her sari. The author asked for a glass of water,
hoping that it might give her an opportunity to escape; J.T. told her to urinate and drink that.
He forcefully grabbed her and attempted to rape her, but she kicked him. He then dragged
her across the room and bashed her head into the door, which caused her forehead to bleed
profusely. Then, J.T. pulled off her petticoat, pushed her face to the floor and raped her
twice. J.T. also bit the author on her nose, cheek and shoulders, which has left permanent
scars. After J.T. left the room, at least three other soldiers entered and raped the author one
after the other until she lost consciousness. The author regained consciousness while she
was still lying on the floor and heard the door open. With the assistance of a soldier, she
managed to walk out of the barracks and was left outside a neighbour’s shop at around 8
p.m., crying in pain and unable to walk. She remained there until the shop owner came and
called an ambulance to take her to Dailekh district hospital.
2.5
Medical staff at Dailekh district hospital were unable to stop the author’s uterus
from bleeding, and she was transferred to Surkhet district hospital, where she stayed for a
week. However, her uterus continued to bleed. She was referred to Lucknow hospital in
2
2
The author notes that the internal conflict escalated in November 2001 when the King declared a
national state of emergency. The Royal Nepalese Army was then deployed in an effort to gain control
over Maoist strongholds in western Nepal. Security forces under the unified command of the Army
reportedly committed numerous extrajudicial killings of civilians suspected of having connections or
sympathies with the Maoists. At the same time, the Maoists abducted and killed civilians suspected of
having ties with the Gvernment.