| Username |
Post |
| madhav |
Posted
on 17-Dec-02 11:10 PM
KOL reports,
School boy released after long year torture by Army.‘Maoist’ yesterday, innocent today; ninth grader’s torturous ordeal
By Ghanashyam Ojha
KATHMANDU, Dec 18 - Handcuffed and skinny, with eyes filled with tears, 16-year-old Diwakar Adhikari, says he had a great desire to be an army man in his life. “But I will never be an army man,” he broke down sobbing, looking at his poor, helpless father squatting in front of him.
The ninth grader studying at Mansing Dharma Secondary School, Shangla Village Development Committee (VDC), Kathmandu, was at the same time, constantly looking at the Supreme Court bench which later ordered his release.
A division bench consisting of the Supreme Court Chief Justice, Kedar Nath Upadhyaya, and Justice Govinda Bahadur Shrestha were through the court hearing of Adhikari who was arrested last year under the Terrorist and Destructive Activities (Control and Prevention) Act (TADA).
According to Bhadragol Prison officials, the formalities for Adhikari’s release will need some more time and he will be released Wednesday. But it took hours for Adhikari to narrate the ordeal he had to go through during his almost year-long detention.
Adhikari was trying to forget the mental and physical torture meted out to him at the army headquarters, where he was forced to admit ‘his Maoist links.’
Narrating his ordeal there, the lad said that the army men asked him to disclose the name of his Maoist leaders and their whereabouts. On every denial of having any knowledge about the Maoists, they threw cold water all over his naked body. He was frequently put into a pit and they threatened to take his life if he did not admit of being a Maoist.
“They asked about my family members and told me that they even would rape my small sister back at home after they knew I had a sister at home,” the boy stammered. “I was asked quite non-sense questions like whether I ever had sexual relations with anyone.”
On the fourth day, he was terrified when an armyman asked him to put on an army uniform. He overheard that he would be taken to a jungle and shot dead.
He knew that he would be killed and finally said that he was a Maoist. “It was the only option to save my life,” he recalls.
He vividly remembers the day a year back, when two plain-clothes army men picked him up from his class, on charges of being a Maoist.
Speechless, Adhikari could not argue with the army personnel as they said he was arrested under TADA, the Act promulgated after the spell of emergency, to deal with Maoist related cases.
“They did not listen to me at all. They told me they had to interrogate me,” he said.
Narrating further, Adhikari says that while being taken to the army headquarters, he remembered the incident that occured in his school few days back. A group of Maoist students had come to his school and demanded a cash amount of Rs 10,000 from the school headmaster.
The helpless headmaster did not comply with the Maoist demand. “We were in our class and saw our headmaster being beaten and his face smeared black and we came out to help him,” Adhikari went on. The Maoists then fled the scene.
After about two weeks they again visited the school and repeated their demand. The headmaster, the boy said, gave Rs 10,000 to the Maoists as demanded. They then asked the headmaster to distribute their membership forms to the students.
“I was reluctant to take the membership form but the headmaster asked me to follow their orders, in order to avert possible punishment,” he said.
“It was a usual day, I had forgotten about the membership form like all my friends, I was studying in my class, when armymen took me in their van, claiming that I was a Maoist,” the boy continued.
The boy holds the VDC chairman Mani Bikram Kunwar responsible for his arrest. “It must be Mani Bikram Kunwar, the VDC chairman who is very powerful,” the boy said. “Kunwar is known for his notoriety in the village and usually tortures the villagers who go against him,” the boy said. “It was one of his cruel activities, as he had picked up a quarrel with my father a few months back.”
After his forced ‘confession’, he was deported to Hanuman Dhoka, Kathmandu and later to Bhadragol Prison, on charges of being a Maoist.
His parents were not given any information about his whereabouts for almost 11 months after his arrest.
After about a year, the poor father Achyut Adhikari got a tip about his son’s whereabouts. With the help of Centre to Assist and Protect Child Rights of Nepal (CAP-CRON), a non-government organisation, a case was filed in the Supreme Court last week. The Court Tuesday issued an order to release Adhikari.
The court verdict came following the writ petition filed by an advocate Bal Krishna Mainali urging the court to immediately release Adhikari as he was innocent. (yo)
http://www.kantipuronline.com/kol_news.html#‘Maoist’ yesterday, innocent today; ninth grader’s torturous ordeal
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| DWI |
Posted
on 17-Dec-02 11:45 PM
Not all will agree with me, most of you won't, but I am still in agreement with Nepal Army Policies.
The most irritating ordeal about all this is we are so quick to point out any mischiefs by these 'Nepali Braves' while we can ignore what Maoists have done so far. Being a government employee and followers of law, we cannot tolerate such action from Army personnels, but why are we so quick to alienate them while we still haven't declared Maoists the public enemy no. 1. You might say, sure we have, oh no we haven't! They wouldn't boast the public support otherwise and wouldn't grow in such leaps and bounds.
What Nepali Armies did with innocent Diwakar was shocking, they should be held responsible for such an action. I don't have a problem with that, the problem I have is with the fact that the negative treatment these people get (believe me, they have hard time already fighting against Maoists) which donot even resonate with the fear in public voice against Maoists. Could it be because, we think Maoists are actually our supporters? Give me a break.
We have rallied against 'Chor Netas' in the past. We have carried anti-leaders, prime minister and even king rallies. We point out the news where they are responsible certain mischiefs. Its high time, we should unison our voice againts the Maoists too, otherwise just sit their and do nothing, not even complain.
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| Madhav |
Posted
on 18-Dec-02 09:09 AM
DWI ji,
you are right the deeds of Maoist and Leaders is more noterious than that of Army. But the issues related to Army is more serious as it means of imposing brutal state force. My opinion is that state by its nature has power to use force but shoud be cautious that the innocent not be victim of such use. State can not say that they are least brutal than Maoist.
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| Jame Bonds |
Posted
on 18-Dec-02 09:13 AM
This boy got out because his family(?) went to court. Imagine thousands of others who don't have their cases heard in court. This shows how life has no value back in the motherland.
What a sad state of affairs.
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| ? |
Posted
on 18-Dec-02 10:25 AM
Maoist or not. I feel for this boy. Wish there was a way I could help him, monetarily or otherwise.
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| Suna |
Posted
on 18-Dec-02 10:25 AM
But DWI, that kind of dealing by the army or anybody in authority will also result in more commies who feel they have been thicho-michoed by those in power.
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| boston_dude |
Posted
on 18-Dec-02 11:36 AM
DWI,
I think we all recognize that RNA has a difficult job to do in fighting against the Maoists. However, as most of us here have seemed to realise, the Army represents the goverment. And, the government is meant to help the innocent.
Also, perhaps even more significantly, to make the wrongdoings of the Army public and to hold them accountable is not to be against the army. We all recognize that there will be some mistakes. We just want RNA to acknowledge the mistakes when they are made. This way, they will be less prone to make mistakes.
B_D.
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| PREMPUjARi |
Posted
on 18-Dec-02 12:07 PM
I don't believe in that boy, nor do I believe in Army/Police.
Everybody LIES!!!
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| Gurl_Interrupted |
Posted
on 18-Dec-02 12:19 PM
Thanks God!! Finally somebody wrote. I've heard of lot of cases where such treatments have occured. But most of those illtreatments were by the police. But it does happen and it is not a lie. Like James bond wrote, at least this brother had a father who went and complained (true)...there has been and there are many lives out there, who have died or are living a tortorous life becoz they have no voice. Have u ever given a thought about why some nepalis decided to become a maoist? All those cases I have known who've turned into one were not forced...they went through their own choices that they were forced to make due to situations, experiences & torture.
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| gbncorg |
Posted
on 18-Dec-02 01:58 PM
Six-th sense is never be used by Nepali-intelligence to solve this type of problem. According to the victim, Adhikari, he is an absolute victim of his father's rival, who is able to make him arrested in any means.
Sorry for Adhikari, he is just a teen and has been suffered from very difficult moment.
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| Madhav |
Posted
on 18-Dec-02 07:45 PM
I agree with Jame Bonds Ji, If you can solicit or try to get attention of media or other powerful means that mediate you issue, you have chances to justice. Adhikari got justice because his father got know about his status by any means and went to court with back force. Otherwise it will be a mirage for him. I opin that justice denial or delay is one of many causes for Maoist proliferation in Nepali soil.
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| DWI |
Posted
on 19-Dec-02 12:16 AM
Madhav, Suna, Boston and all, I understand your sentiments and agree with you. Being a government wing, Armies have more ethical responsibilities. They should be punished for the way they carried out their operation, even though the motive might be pro-country; that is not a way to do it.
I only am little agitated to the fact that millions of Nepalese are not doing anything effective against the Maoists insurgency. We should respond equally well to these anti-national factors. Protest rallies, if not public then secret meetings to educate the villagers about them, should be carried over. We've sacrificed enough for democracy, which also synonyms 'being able to live without fear.'
Key point is to identify our number one enemy. Presenting armies as the culprit on the whole game is missing the point. What they did in case of poor Diwakar shouldn't be gone unnoticed but lets also not fail to note why all this is happening.
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| LL66HG |
Posted
on 19-Dec-02 02:16 AM
RNA does not want this problem solved as we wish. My prediction goes for another 8 years before complete cool down. Read someother thread where I pointed out how these 4 out of 5 groups are cunningly playing games.
HG
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| Madhav |
Posted
on 19-Dec-02 07:13 PM
HG ji, I can not predict political development and even confine time limit as politics and basball game are not predictable. What I say is that if you meticulesouly scan different scenarion and political development as a result of interaction between/among parties, government,royal palace, and maoist itself, the situation is frangible. Any things can happen may be unexpected and unwelcomed. Really, it is difficutl to predict the future course on the limelight of choatic theory.
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