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Stop arms aid to Nepal: Amnesty

A leading human rights watchdog has alleged that western governments are flouting their own rules and contributing to what it called grave human rights abuses by selling arms and weapons systems to crisis-torn Nepal.

In a strong-worded statement issued on Wednesday, the London-based watchdog accused Britain, India and the United States of supplying thousands of assault rifles to the poor country, which is facing a Maoist insurgency and said Belgium was selling machine guns and South Africa military communications equipment.

"With the conflict poised to escalate, any further military assistance would be highly irresponsible," Amnesty said, appealing for a ban on arms sales to the Himalayan kingdom.

"Arms should not be exported as long as there is a clear risk that they might be used to commit serious human rights abuse," said Amnesty's Asia-Pacific programme director Purna Sen.

Over 12,000 people have been killed in the nine-year-old Maoist insurgency.

Amnesty said India had sent Nepal 25,000 rifles and also Lancer helicopter gunships made under license from France's Eurocopter. The organisation said the choppers were used to attack village meetings called by the rebels.

Amnesty said the United States has supplied Nepal with 20,000 M16 assault rifles and $29 million in military funding since 2001.

It accused Britain of sending several shipments of small arms and nearly 7,000 assault rifles in breach of the 1998 European Union Code of Conduct on Arms Exports, as well as supplying Short Take Off and Landing (STOL) aircraft without verifying their end usage.

Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD) denied it had broken any rules.

"The Department of Trade and Industry will not issue a license if to do so would be contrary to international commitments or where there is a clear risk that the proposed export might be used for internal repression," Reuters news agency quoted a MoD spokesman as saying.

Amnesty also accused Britain, India and the United States of training Nepalese security forces without vetting them for suspected human rights abuses. Amnesty called on the Nepali authorities to end arbitrary arrests, clarify the status of all people who had "disappeared", relax rigid security laws and fully investigate all allegations of human rights violations.

Addressing a press meet in Kathmandu Tuesday, a spokesman of the Royal Nepalese Army said security forces in the country were aware about their duty to protect human rights of the people. Brigadier General Dipak Kumar Gurung said action had been taken against the security personnel who had been found guilty for rights violations. nepalnews.com by June 15 05