Weaknesses of law enforcement agencies responsible for Gaur massacre: OHCHR

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Nepal has said that weakness of law enforcement agencies was responsible for the Gaur massacre in which 27 people lost their lives.

An investigation report made public by the OHCHR-Nepal on Friday said, “First and foremost, the incidents highlighted once more the weaknesses on law enforcement agencies, who were aware of the potential clashes and other violence, were grossly ill-prepared to ensure effective crowd control.”

The report confirmed that 27 persons, most of them linked to the CPN-Maoist died in the incident. “The incident on the Rice Mill field was sparked when about a dozen young men destroyed the CPN-M stage. After initially fleeing, MJF supporters turned on the largely outnumbered CPN-M cadres. In the evening attacks, 27 individuals-including four women and a 17-year-old girl were killed, all but one with blows from bhaatas and lathis,” the report added.

According to the report, the Nepal Police and Armed Police Force failed to prevent the violence from happening by persuading the organisers to move or postpone the rallies. “They failed to stop the violence when it broke out. They failed to protect those who came under attack, and they failed to carry out any arrests.”

The report rapped the government for not immediately carrying out criminal investigation into the case. “A prime obligation of the state is to carry immediate and thorough investigations into killings. To date, no first information report has been filed for these killing and to OHCHR’s knowledge criminal investigations into the killings have yet to be launched,” the report said.

The OHCHR also noted that the high level commission of inquiry set up by the government had not started its work and took the government to task for not implementing the recommendations submitted to it by OHCHR and also for not implementing the report submitted by the Rayamajhi commission formed to probe the atrocities committed to suppress the Jana Aandolan II.

OHCHR said the MJF activists and the Maoists violated human rights and humanitarian laws during the Gaur massacre. “Both the Maoists and the MJF exposed children under 18 to the possibility of harm by including them in their rallies, in contravention of international child rights standards.”

The UN rights watchdog also urged both the organisations to fully respect those principles and ensure that young people are not used in political rallies where violence is possible.

Saying that the state has an obligation to ensure a secure environment for its citizens, and ensure respect for life, freedom of expression and assembly, the OHCHR report said, “The Gaur incident demonstrated the fragility of respect those rights and the capacity of the state to protect them.”

“It is the duty and responsibility of all actors in the peace and electoral process and especially the state to ensure that the events of 21 March are not repeated.”

Contrary to earlier claims, the OHCHR report revealed that there were no evidences of rape or sexual mutilation to the women killed during the carnege. nepalnews.com pb Apr 20 07