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C O N F I D E N T I A L KATHMANDU 002089 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/01/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PTER NP
SUBJECT: NEPAL ARMY TORTURES NEPAL POLICE OFFICERS 
 
REF: KATHMANDU 1376 
 
Classified By: Ambassador James F. Moriarty.  Reasons 1.4 (b/d). 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. (C) On July 29, dozens of soldiers from the Nepal Army's 
Bhairabnath Battalion in Kathmandu surrounded a local police 
station, abducted three police officers by force, and then 
allegedly beat and tortured the police officers in the 
battalion's barracks.  The Bhairabnath Battalion is the same 
unit that was accused by the United Nations Office of the 
High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in May of having 
in 2003 committed gross human rights violations (reftel). 
Police and Army contacts indicated that the incident would 
probably not affect future cooperation between the two 
security agencies.  Civil society and political leaders said 
that the incident was illustrative of the changes needed in 
the Nepal Army to make it more democratic and bring it 
clearly under civilian leadership.  End Summary. 
 
Nepal Army Officers Attack Nepal Police Officers 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Media reported and Nepal Police contacts confirmed 
that on July 29, approximately 30 soldiers from the 
Bhairabnath Battalion in Kathmandu took three Nepal Police 
officers by force after the police asked Army Captain 
Robindra Bikram Rana and his friend to move their car from 
the street.  (Note: The Bhairabnath Battalion is the same 
unit accused of gross human rights abuses by OHCHR in May. 
End note.)  The soldiers then took the police officers back 
to the Bhairabnath barracks, where they allegedly beat and 
tortured them, holding their heads underwater and subjecting 
them to electric shocks.  The soldiers released the police 
officers a few hours later, and they were treated at the 
Police Hospital.  The Ministry of Defense created a committee 
while the government appointed an inter-ministerial committee 
at the joint security level to look into the incident; a 
court martial has taken eleven of the Nepal Army soldiers 
into custody. 
 
Probably Will Not Affect Police-Military Relations 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶3. (C) Deputy Inspector General of Police Rabi Shrestha told 
us that such incidents have also happened in the past, but 
have always been "taken care of at the senior levels." 
Shrestha claimed that this incident would not affect future 
cooperation between the Nepal Police and the Nepal Army, but 
that the Nepal Army needed to create a concrete plan to 
control such behavior from their personnel in the future.  A 
mid-level Nepal Army contact close to the Embassy shared his 
personal opinion that Captain Rana was a "real knucklehead," 
and was not surprised by what happened.  The general 
consensus among Army and Police contacts was that this sort 
of behavior was not new in Nepal, and would probably happen 
again in the future.  Our contacts assert that such incidents 
had always been solved before internally without causing too 
much of a rift in inter-agency cooperation.  That said, the 
contempt between the army and police over the past few years 
has been palpable and presumably has been fed by incidents 
such as this. 
 
Civil Society And Politicos Say Army Must Change 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶4. (C) Subodh Pyakurel, President of the Informal Sector 
Service Center (INSEC), opined that such incidents had been 
occurring in Nepal for a long time, but only now, under a 
democratic government, were the Nepal Police courageous 
enough to speak out against abuses by the Nepal Army. 
Pyakurel saw this incident as a blessing in disguise because 
it could help speed up the process of amending the Army Act 
and bringing the Nepal Army under civilian control.  Chakra 
Prasad Koirala, Central Committee Member of the Nepali 
Congress (NC), stated that the incident reflected the 
"stubbornness of the Nepal Army."  Koirala went on to say 
that the Maoists and other "elements" were trying to create 
anarchy in the name of such incidents by fueling what he 
coined "the already existing anti-army attitude held by most 
in Nepali society."  Jhalanath Khanal, Central Committee 
Member of the CPN-UML told us that the incident was proof 
that the Nepal Army needed democratization, and that the 
government needed to "weed out" undemocratic elements like 
Rana. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶5. (C) We expect that members of the Nepal Army are as 
appalled as we were by the July 29 incident at the now 
notorious Bhairabnath barracks, but it does underscore the 
need for our continued cooperation with the Nepal Army to 
help them become a more professional and responsible force. 
The Maoists will likely cite the case as further proof of the 
necessity to decommission Nepal Army weapons as well as their 
own.  We hope PM Koirala's government draws a different 
lesson.  Army Chief of Staff General Pyar Jung Thapa recently 
refused a request to appear before the high-level Rayamajhi 
Commission. (Note: The Rayamajhi Commission has a mandate to 
investigate alleged abuses of the former royal government 
during the April pro-democracy movement.  End note.)  He has 
also failed to express remorse about the latest incident at 
Bhairabnath.  It is time for civilians to exercise control 
over the Army.  Firing Thapa, who will retire in any event at 
the end of August, would be a step in that direction. 
MORIARTY