Nepal's Maoist youth create "climate of fear"-UN http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSDEL140233
Sat Jun 23, 2007
KATHMANDU, June 23 (Reuters) - Activists from the youth wing of Nepal's former Maoist rebels are creating a "climate of fear" by abducting and beating people, the United Nations said on Saturday.
The UN body said on Friday that Maoists, who ended a decade-long insurgency in November, were among those preventing other parties from functioning freely in rural areas ahead of an assembly election at the end of this year.
The Maoists created the Young Communist League (YCL) in December after confining thousands of their guerrillas in camps and locking up weapons under UN supervision.
The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Nepal said the newly created group was violating human rights and disrupting political activity. It urged the former rebels to stop the abuses immediately.
"The human rights abuses committed by the YCL are contributing to a climate of fear and intimidation," OHCHR in Nepal said in a statement.
Many of at least 24 abductions linked to the league since the end of May had occurred within the context of YCL "law enforcement activities".
Those abducted were "taken to places which were not official detention centres, interrogated, in some cases beaten and threatened before being released or handed over to police", OHCHR in Nepal said.
The league rejected the charges.
"We only help maintain the law and order and have handed over people detained by us to police in front of the media and the public," YCL President Ganesh Man Pun said.
OHCHR said police were weak in restoring law and order, maintaining security and protecting civilians.
"This weakness is one of the biggest impediments to creating conditions for a free and fair constituent assembly election, and to ensuring a successful peace process," the UN agency said.
The election is due in the Nepali month beginning on Nov. 17. It will decide the fate of the monarchy, a key demand of the Maoists who signed a peace deal in November and want the monarchy abolished.
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