British police on Friday said they were charging a Nepalese army colonel
British police on Friday said they were charging a Nepalese army colonel with two counts of torture allegedly committed during the Himalayan nation’s civil war, in a move likely to anger the Kathmandu government.
Kumar Lama, 46, will appear in court in London on Saturday accused of “intentionally inflicting severe pain or suffering” on two people at an army barracks in Kapilvastu in 2005, Scotland Yard said.
Lama’s arrest on Thursday at his home in St Leonards-on-Sea, near Hastings on the south coast of England, sparked a formal protest by the Nepalese government to the British ambassador and a demand to release Lama.
Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha said Friday that British police had arrested Lama, who has been serving in the UN mission in Sudan, without informing the Nepalese government and with no evidence.
Such a move was “against the general principle of international law and jurisdiction of a sovereign country”, Shrestha said.
“We have expressed strong objections to this act. Nepal army personnel would be punished according to their own internal committee. And we are committed to punish anyone who has violated human rights,” Shrestha told reporters.
“This act has hurt our attempt to ensure a long-lasting peace. We are going through a transitional phase and are committed to completing the peace process. We have urged the British government to release him immediately.”
Lama, believed to be in Britain to meet his wife who works as a nurse, was arrested under British law which allows prosecutors to act against people suspected of torture no matter where it took place in the world.
The first count against Lama states that between April 15 and May 1, 2005, “as a public official or person acting in an official capacity, at the Gorusinghe Army Barracks, Kapilvastu, Nepal, you intentionally inflicted severe pain or suffering on Janak Bahadur Raut in the performance or purported performance of your official duties”, the police statement said.
The second charge says that between April 15 and October 31, 2005, in the same circumstances, the suspect tortured a man named as Karam Hussain.
Lama has been remanded in custody and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in central London on Saturday.
More than 16,000 people died in the decade-long conflict between Maoist rebels and government forces which ended in 2006. More than 1,000 are still missing.
There are allegations of killings and torture on both sides, and rights groups say little has been done to bring justice to victims and their families.
Source AFP