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Rebels kidnap hundreds of students in Nepal
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-16 09:37
Rebels have abducted more than 500 students from their classrooms in recent
days in a series of bold kidnappings in western Nepal, officials said Sunday.
The Royal Nepalese Army headquarters in the capital said the students had
been taken from their schools in neighboring Tahanu and Palpa districts, about
300 kilometers (miles) west of Katmandu.
They were rounded up from their classes and taken on Friday from these
village schools in the remote mountainous area which has a strong rebel
presence.
The official said authorities had little information, but called the
abductions inhuman and a violatation of human rights.
In the past, they have taken students from their schools for a few days to
indoctrinate them with their revolutionary ideology, but have returned most of
them safely.
However, they stopped the practice after local and international rights
groups repeatedly appealed to the guerrillas to protect students from the
violence.
Col. Nawajit Rana, an army official at the regional command center said the
military was investigating the kidnappings.
Earlier on Sunday, international aid agencies announced a pullout from a
poverty-ridden district in west Nepal after two local staff members of the
German development agency GTZ were severely beaten by the rebels when they
refused to hand over money.
A joint statement from aid agencies said a male and female were beaten, and
the woman was ordered to dig her own grave before a fee was paid and the two
were released.
It said projects run by groups from Germany, Switzerland, Britain, Finland,
Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Canada would be suspended in the district —
one of the hardest hit by the insurgency. Residents in the area rely heavily on
foreign donors.
The rebels regularly seek payments from development groups in Nepal, and have
shut down some projects for failing to do so.
The guerrillas have stepped up violence since Feb. 1, when King Gyanendra
took control of the government claiming it was necessary in part to end the
civil war, which has killed more than 11,500.
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