NPL 003 / 0908 / OBS 150
Assassinations / Arbitrary arrests /
Releases
Nepal
September 9, 2008
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Nepal.
The Observatory has been informed by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) about the assassination of Messrs. Kebal Raut and Krishna Yadav, two active members of the Nepali Factory Workers’ Union (NFWU).
According to the information received, on August 29, 2008, Messrs. Kebal Raut and Krishna Yadav, two workers of Narayani Rolling Mills, in the Bara District, were shot by the police while trying to hand over a package of workers’ demands to the company management. The NFWU was indeed engaged in collective bargaining talks with the company management. When the workers, with both NFWU members among them, tried to approach management in order to hand over their demands, the police suddenly intervened and started blindly firing shots at them, killing both Mr. Raut and Mr. Yadav, and seriously injuring about 50 other workers.
Furthermore, on September 3, 2008, the police arrested no less than 80 union leaders during a peaceful protest in Kathmandu, including Mr. Santosh Rayamajhi, General Secretary of the United Telecom Ltd (UTL) workers’ trade union. The union had organised a rally in support of its demands for an end to the system of temporary contracts for the workers, for better working conditions, and for the true application of Nepal’s labour and trade union laws. The unionists were arrested in a very aggressive and brutal way, and many of them were injured. Some of them were even wounded by bullets, including a number of women. Among those injured were Messrs. Sundar K.C., Suman Rayamajhi, Subodharaj Tiwari, Dor Bahadur Bodhathoki, Santosh Adhikari, Bikram Basnet, Sushil Aryal, Nira Kshetri, Kabila Regmi, Saraswati Thapa, Saraswati Niraula, Lokmani Maskey and Sushil Maharjan. All detainees were held at the Mahendra police station, on Exhibition Road in Kathmandu, to be released only in the evening.
The Observatory expresses its deep concern about Messrs. Kebal Raut and Mr. Krishna Yadav’s assassination, and urges the Nepalese authorities to order a thorough and impartial investigation into their assassination in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before a civil competent and impartial tribunal and apply to them the penal sanctions provided by the law. The Observatory is further concerned by the recent acts of harassment against trade unionists in Nepal.
Please write to the Nepalese authorities and ask them to:
Please also write to the diplomatic representations of Nepal in your respective countries.
Geneva - Paris, September 9, 2008
Kindly inform the Observatory of any action undertaken quoting the code number of this appeal in your reply.
The Observatory, a FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of human rights defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.
The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.
To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:
Tel and fax: FIDH : +33 (0) 1 43 55 20 11 / 33 (0) 1 43 55 18 80
Tel and fax OMCT : + 41 (0) 22 809 49 39 / + 41 (0) 22 809 49 29
Email : Appeals@fidh-omct.org
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