Lawyers’ Forum for Human Rights

In August 2007, Jitman Basnet, a lawyer, journalist and Secretary General of the Lawyers’ Forum for Human Rights (LAFHUR), in Babarmahal, Kathmandu, requested PBI-Nepal for accompaniment. LAFHUR is a newly established organization working on issues of impunity and enforced disappearances during the 10-year conflict between the State and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).

In the past, Jitman Basnet has been the subject of human rights violations and more recently has received death threats, which he believes are connected to a book he published about the time he spent in army custody. As a consequence of his human rights activities, and especially the publication of his book in which he discloses information from the army barracks and the names of perpetrators of human rights violations, he is concerned for his security in Nepal.

In one interview Jitman Basnet told PBI-Nepal how he had concerns for his security in Nepal, saying, “I am fearing that they are planning to take control of me. They need to end or destroy the witnesses and proofs of human rights violation inside the Army barrack. Nowadays, I am not walking freely and not taking part in public programs in Kathmandu. I am also not going to my office day to day�.

Background information:
In 2002, Jitman Basnet was arrested and detained by Maoists for writing news reports against their destructive activities and photographing destroyed buildings. In 2004, he was arrested by members of the then ‘Royal Nepalese Army’ and taken to Bhairabnath Army Battalion, Kathmandu, where he was arbitrarily detained incommunicado for 258 days and tortured. After his release, Jitman Basnet was repeatedly harassed by members of the army and, as a result, he left Nepal and spent some 16 months in India before returning to Nepal.

In March 2007, after his return from exile, Jitman Basnet published a custody journal “Andhyara 258 Din� (258 Dark days) relating to his prolonged custody in Bhairabnath Battalion’s facilities. The book also covers the stories of many other detainees who were tortured, raped, killed and/or disappeared at the hands of the Bhairabnath Barracks’ personnel, giving an insight into Nepal’s turbulent and bloody recent past, about which questions of impunity still prevail.

Since the publication of the book, strangers have been asking his neighbours for his place of residence, and he has received threatening phone calls from unknown persons. In one phone call he was told, “You are becoming hero by publishing the book, you will get results of your work soon�. Another one said, "You are going to be killed, we will also kill your wife." In another call the caller identified themselves as one of the army personnel named in Jitman Basnet’s book.

In conjunction with his book, Jitman Basnet filed a writ of mandamus before the Supreme Court, demanding that a High Level Committee be formed to investigate human rights violations that took place during the recent conflict in Nepal, as well as into the cases of disappearances that the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights-Nepal (OHCHR-Nepal) submitted to the government in May 2005. He also accused King Gyanendra and army officials of supplying false information to the Supreme Court. King Gyanendra is cited in these cases as he was the Chief of the Royal Nepal Army and therefore bears command responsibility. This request is due to receive a ruling in October 2007.

PBI-Nepal has started to accompany Jitman Basnet in Kathmandu and is involved in coordinating his security plan together with other national and international human rights organizations in Nepal.