December 8, 2004, 11:16 AM EST
KATMANDU, Nepal -- The Royal Nepalese Army said Wednesday it has disciplined 105 soldiers and officers for human rights abuses, ranging from excessive use of force to murder.
The punishments handed down in the last year have ranged from warnings and suspension to jail terms -- with seven years in an army prison the maximum sentence, said army spokesman Col. Deepak Gurung.
The admission came as a team of U.N. investigators was in Nepal to investigate allegations that the military has been involved in extrajudicial killings, disappearances, arbitrary arrests and torture while fighting Maoist rebels.
Independent human rights groups say as many as 1,200 people have disappeared in Nepal, and that the army is largely to blame. Gurung said only 47 people are in army custody.
The Maoists, who say they are inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been fighting since 1996 to replace Nepal's monarchy with a communist state. The insurgency has claimed more than 10,000 lives.
Rebels walked out of peace talks and withdrew from a seven-month cease-fire in August, and local and international human rights groups have expressed concerns about a growing number of alleged abuses by both the government and the guerrillas.
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1 comment:
It is nice to see something other than the Iraq war. I like the picture at the top of your blog. I'm not fond of communists, but then again, I am an American, we were tought that communists were the evil empire. Nothing compares to Freedom.
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