UN OHCHR to monitor UML rally
The United Nations Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Nepal has said it will monitor the mass meeting and rally being organized by a major opposition party, CPN (UML) on Friday (Dec. 2).
Talking to a delegation led by senior UML leader, Jhal Nath Khanal, at his office in Kathmandu on Tuesday, head of the OHCHR mission in Nepal, Ian Martin, said his office will monitor whether people’s right to assemble in an independent or peaceful way is violated during the UML’s upcoming rally.
He said the government’s raid against Radio Sagarmatha FM on Sunday was a violation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and other international humanitarian laws. He said there had been no improvement in the situation of human rights in the country.
Earlier, in a memorandum submitted to Martin, the UML delegation alleged that the government had mobilized security forces and even physically attacked supporters and activists involved in the ‘people’s awareness campaign’ launched by the party. The party alleged that royal-appointed zonal administrators had systematically mobilized security forces in the name of `civil society’ to disrupt its recent mass meetings in Butwal, Pokhara and Janakpur.
The authorities refute such allegations.
Tens of thousands of people have already taken part in the mass meetings and rallies being organized by the UML so far.
Talking to reporters at the UML headquarters in Kathmandu on Tuesday, UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal said Friday’s rally will be a show of strength in the capital.
“People have shed their fears and are all set to come out against the autocratic regime,” Nepal said. “We are coordinating with other opposition parties so as to mobilize a human wave in the capital and other parts of the country, which will be a final showdown with the regime,” he added.
The opposition parties say they will continue their peaceful agitation until the restoration of peace and democracy in the country.
Senior officials, however, say there is no rationale behind the on-going opposition protests. They say the parties should rather support the royal move of February 1, this year. nepalnews.com by Nov 29 05
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