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Monitoring Recent Shutdown In Nepal
By KTM Metro Reporter
June 5, 2010: the recent shutdown called by the Maoists in Nepal was largely well organized and non-violent, the United Nations human rights office in the country said on June 3, 2010, mentioning the crucial role of rights defenders in monitoring such events according to the press releases posted on the scoop.co.nz.
The Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M) held mass demonstrations drawing more than 160,000 people across the country on 1 May calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Madhav Nepal and forming a Government of national unity. The following day, the party started an extended nationwide shutdown that was fully enforced in nearly all of Nepal’s districts.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal has said that although the early days of the six-day shutdown were mostly calm, incidents of violence picked up as the shutdown continued and frustrations with its effects grew.
The instances of the party using violence against people it viewed to be defying the shutdown as well as with representatives of other political parties and those alleged to be “infiltrators” among the UCPN-M protesters were reported. “The targeting of journalists by UCPN-M was also a cause for considerable concern,” with several media professionals badly beaten, the Office said.
“Despite frequently heightened tensions, demonstration organizers undertook measure to ensure that order was largely maintained with UCPN-M cadres,” the report noted. “Given the scale of the demonstrations, both in terms of the number of participants and geographical coverage, and the experience from previous similar-sized protest movements, the level of violent incidents was less than on earlier occasions.”
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and rights defenders have monitored the events across Nepal “largely without restriction” with the Office collaborating with the Commission to share information and cover different areas.
It said, “there was an improvement in professional behavior in comparison with previous demonstrations, and there were a number of occasions where the role of the organizations was viewed as constructive.”
Among its recommendations, the report underlined the importance of Nepal’s rights organizations to coordinate their work and to adhere to “the highest professional standards” in their duties.
