Nepal's Maoist rebels, like the army and police, have been accused of abuses by human rights groups and those civilians who have suffered at their hands.
'Maniram' (not his real name) told IRIN he was working as a village teacher until April 2005, when a group of Maoist militants abducted him from his house and detained him for nearly a month. They said his brother, a member of the Maoists, had deserted them, and held Maniram responsible for persuading him to leave.
“I had not seen my brother for many years after he joined the Maoist party of his own free will. It was only when I got abducted by the militants that I found that he had deserted the rebels. It was around 06:00 in the morning when a group of armed militants came to my house in Ghetna, that’s about one day’s walk from Khalanga [a town in Rukum district], and asked me to walk with them. I was very frightened that this would be the end of my life and I did not know why I was being abducted. They made me walk for a whole day and finally in the evening [we] reached Jipu village.
At around 22:00, the rebels dragged me to a room where 11 of their leaders were sitting around a table. One of them started hitting me when I told them I had nothing to do with my brother’s desertion of their party. The beating lasted for hours. I constantly told them that I was innocent but they again battered me with heavy logs.
It was almost five hours later that I realised I had fainted. When I woke up, I was bleeding all over my face and body. Realising that there would be more torture, I gave up and told them what they wanted to hear. I admitted that I helped my brother surrender to the security forces to live an ordinary civilian life. After that I was locked in a dark room for 28 days. I was handcuffed for 24 hours a day. I never saw the sunlight all this time. They used to throw food in the room and [I] was not even allowed to go out for toilet.
I was given food twice a day, every 12 hours. I knew that I would die living like this as I believed there was no hope of being released. I noticed that the door to the room where I was being kept was not very strong, so I broke out of the door around 21:00 one night. I ran all the way down to Khalanga and went straight to the police post, getting there about seven hours later. By then it was almost morning. There [too] I was interrogated and detained for one night. But the police released me after that and gave me food.
With help from the unified command of the police and army, I was given a job as a teacher in the local high school, where I am still in hiding as the Maoists are still looking for me. All I want is justice and an apology from the Maoist leaders for torturing me for no reason. My parents were in total shock. I was afraid I would never see my young sons and wife. Luckily I am alive today but I don’t know for how long. The Maoists are out to get me, I know that.”
'Maniram' (not his real name) told IRIN he was working as a village teacher until April 2005, when a group of Maoist militants abducted him from his house and detained him for nearly a month. They said his brother, a member of the Maoists, had deserted them, and held Maniram responsible for persuading him to leave.
“I had not seen my brother for many years after he joined the Maoist party of his own free will. It was only when I got abducted by the militants that I found that he had deserted the rebels. It was around 06:00 in the morning when a group of armed militants came to my house in Ghetna, that’s about one day’s walk from Khalanga [a town in Rukum district], and asked me to walk with them. I was very frightened that this would be the end of my life and I did not know why I was being abducted. They made me walk for a whole day and finally in the evening [we] reached Jipu village.
At around 22:00, the rebels dragged me to a room where 11 of their leaders were sitting around a table. One of them started hitting me when I told them I had nothing to do with my brother’s desertion of their party. The beating lasted for hours. I constantly told them that I was innocent but they again battered me with heavy logs.
It was almost five hours later that I realised I had fainted. When I woke up, I was bleeding all over my face and body. Realising that there would be more torture, I gave up and told them what they wanted to hear. I admitted that I helped my brother surrender to the security forces to live an ordinary civilian life. After that I was locked in a dark room for 28 days. I was handcuffed for 24 hours a day. I never saw the sunlight all this time. They used to throw food in the room and [I] was not even allowed to go out for toilet.
I was given food twice a day, every 12 hours. I knew that I would die living like this as I believed there was no hope of being released. I noticed that the door to the room where I was being kept was not very strong, so I broke out of the door around 21:00 one night. I ran all the way down to Khalanga and went straight to the police post, getting there about seven hours later. By then it was almost morning. There [too] I was interrogated and detained for one night. But the police released me after that and gave me food.
With help from the unified command of the police and army, I was given a job as a teacher in the local high school, where I am still in hiding as the Maoists are still looking for me. All I want is justice and an apology from the Maoist leaders for torturing me for no reason. My parents were in total shock. I was afraid I would never see my young sons and wife. Luckily I am alive today but I don’t know for how long. The Maoists are out to get me, I know that.”
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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