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One More Culprit Of Bhairabnath Battalion Exposed
By KTM Metro Reporter
February 8, 2011: Geneva based no-governmental organization called TRIAL working for the enforced disappearance has filed an appeal for bringing the culprits that have arrested and tortured Jitman Basnet of the Solukhumbu district to justice and for reparation to the victim at the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) in Geneva on Friday, February 4, 2011 coinciding with the day on which the Nepal Army arrested Jitman Basnet on February 4, 2004 and has kept him in the custody of the Bhairabnath Battalion for 258 days without the knowledge of his family members about his whereabouts, ‘The Himalayan Times’ and Ekantipur.com write.
TRIAL has taken up the case of Basnet at the UNHRC after the Government of Nepal headed by former Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has not only ignored the need for bringing the culprits to justice but also promoted the then commander of the Bhairabnath Battalion Toran Jung Bahadur Singh to the second-in-command of the Nepal Army despite the international community and human rights activists have repeatedly demanded to bring Toran Jung Bahadur Singh to justice.
The Bairabnath Battalion has been responsible for the enforced disappearances of 49 people under its custody in 2004. The whereabouts of those people are still unknown. Basnet is only one lucky victim to remain alive even after torture and detention for 258 days.
UNOHCHR has conducted an investigation into the enforced disappearances and has indicted the Bhairabnath Battalion for illegal detention, torture, extrajudicial killing and disappearance of hundreds of people suspected to be Maoists in 2003 and 2004.
Since his release from the illegal detention of the Bhairabnath Battalion, Jitman Basnet has worked for finding out the whereabouts of and the release of other detainees. In recognition of his work, Bharatiya Manav Adhikar Samsthan has conferred Universal Human Rights Award on Mr. Basnet in 2007. The Indian network of non-government organizations has conferred Karmabir Award on him in 2009, and Human Rights Watch has conferred Hellman/Hammett grants on him in 2010.
Mr. Basnet is working as an advocate and a journalist, and has written a book titled ‘258 Dark Days’: a memoir of the detention ‘The Himalayan Times’ online writes.
