IRIN: Vigilante groups still pose threat to civilians October 2006

Vigilante groups still pose threat to civilians

KAPILBASTU, 27 Oct 2006 (IRIN)

Despite a ceasefire and peace process, fear still lurks in many remote villages in Kapilbastu district, 200 km east of the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu. Anti-Maoist vigilantes continue to terrorise local people and routinely accuse them of supporting the rebels, according to citizens' groups.

"The government was supposed to disarm these [vigilante] groups but has failed to do anything yet," said Drona Raj Subedi, leader of Kapilbastu's civil society group, which has been working closely with Nepal's human rights organisations to convince the vigilantes to give up their arms and work peacefully to settle their differences with the Maoists.

Vigilante groups have been active in Nepal since 2005. They were formed as 'village defence forces' to protect themselves from Maoist rebels who often swooped on rural communites, taking off young people and plundering food and equipment. The rebels waged their 'armed struggle' for more than a decade and an estimated 14,000 people have died in the conflict.

Initially welcomed in rural areas as providing security in regions the army feared to tread, many vigilantes degenerated into lawless armed groups renowned for accusing civilians of being Maoist sympathisers, explained Subedi.

Amnesty International (AI) reported in July 2005 that vigilantes had burnt 700 houses and killed 31 people during a sweep for rebels in several villages in Kapilbastu.

"The creation of these village defence forces blurs the distinction between combatants and non-combatants, resulting in an increased number of civilian casualties," said Purna Sen, AI's Asia-Pacific programme director.

The vigilantes are also, AI said, putting more civilians at risk because Maoist rebels consider them a legitimate target. "Villagers told Amnesty International delegates that they were being terrorised by the (vigilante) groups, who were forcibly recruiting them, beating them, searching their houses and sexually harassing local women," the AI statement said.

Local human rights activists fully expected the vigilantes to halt their violence this year after peace talks between rebels and the newly-formed interim government. These developments followed the end of absolute rule of the Nepalese monarch, King Gyanendra, in April. Peace talks are ongoing but have stalled on the issue of disarmament and the absorption of rebels forces into Nepal's national army.

But physical threats and extortions still continue at the hands of the village defence forces, complained local people.

"They are still unwilling to give up their arms and continue to threaten villagers despite the willingness of the rebels to compromise with them," said local journalist Sanjay Panthi, who has been reporting on vigilantes in Kapilbastu for more than a year.

Panthi explained that the regional security situation could deteriorate as vigilante leaders were reported to be uniting with other anti-Maoist groups, such as the Terai Jantantrik Mukti Morcha (TJMM) - a Maoist splinter group.

Rights activists are concerned that the TJMM will use the vigilantes ­ who are better organised and armed, to stir up violence in the region.

"If the vigilantes are not disarmed now and the government fails to control them, the situation will become more dangerous and negatively affect the peace process," explained Subedi.

In September, Subedi led a group of journalists, human rights workers and lawyers to meet vigilante leaders in Kapilbastu to convince them of the need to reach a bilateral understanding with the Maoists, but the vigilantes refused to cooperate, he said.

"As long as the Maoists do not disarm themselves, we will also continue with our campaign against them to protect ourselves," said a vigilante leader at the meeting, on condition of anonymity.

Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).