UN rights experts deeply concerned by secret detentions in Nepal

Three United Nations human rights experts said today they were deeply concerned by reports that dozens of people are being secretly detained in Nepal.

The UN Commission on Human Rights' Special Rapporteur on torture, Theo van Boven, the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Ambeyi Ligabo, and the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Leila Zerrougui, said the detainees are at risk of torture and other forms of mistreatment.

Fred Eckhard, a spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan, told a press briefing in New York today that the three rapporteurs have sent 31 urgent appeals in the last two months to the Nepalese Government relating to the alleged detention of 56 people, including journalists, in unknown locations.

There have been reports that, since the collapse on 27 August of a ceasefire between the Nepalese Government and the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN), both sides have committed human rights abuses.