AFP. 11 January 2002. Group claims arrested journalists "mentally tortured" in Nepal.
KATHMANDU -- A journalists' organisation in Nepal Friday accused the government of allowing journalists to be arrested under a state of emergency and "mentally tortured." The Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) said 40 journalists had been detained since emergency rule was declared in November to combat a Maoist rebellion. "Of the 40 arrested journalists within and outside Kathmandu, at least 10 are still in police custody," FNJ general secretary Tara Nath Dahal said. Five were from Kathmandu, while the other five were from rural districts, he said. "The journalists are arrested by the police and are later handed over to the army security who are mentally torturing them during their custody. "The security personnel or police have to stop the torture," he added, without elaborating on his claims. Dahal said most of those arrested had written or published articles about the Maoist rebels, whom the Nepalese government has branded as terrorists. During the emergency the government has warned journalists not to file stories which would encourage the Maoist cause. The FNJ demanded that the government release those journalists still in custody. "We, the journalists have been cooperating with the government during the state emergency and we are abiding with the government's censorship also," he said. "Journalists should not be denied the right to free flow of news about the army and police actions against the Maoist terrorists," he said. He said the FNJ was "both concerned and worried about the escalating threat to press freedom." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
