Nepal agrees to allow UN rights monitors into country

GENEVA, Tuesday (AFP) Nepal has agreed to immediately allow United Nations monitors into the country to help prevent human rights abuses, the UN's top human rights official announced, after authorities there came under pressure from their main aid donors.

"Breaking the cycle of serious and systematic abuses will be the first essential step toward achieving peace and reconciliation in Nepal," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said. The agreement was signed over the weekend with Nepalese Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey.

The UN said in a statement that it will set up field offices with human rights monitors, who will "establish accountability for abuses and prevent further violations" in Kathmandu and in other regions. However, the move was marred by King Gyanendra of Nepal's near simultaneous announcement that he was extending by six months emergency laws allowing sweeping powers of arrest and detention.

King Gyanendra sacked the government and declared emergency rule on February 1, saying it was necessary to tackle a Maoist insurgency that has killed more than 11,000 people since 1996.

"We were not aware that the state of emergency would be renewed for six months," Swiss ambassador to the UN in Geneva Blaise Godet said.

Switzerland, along with the European Union and other donor nations, had put Nepal under pressure at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva to accept outside monitors, amid concern at the arrest of politicians and reports of torture. "We did think the situation had worsened since the king has taken over the reins of the country in February," Godet said.

Nepalese officials said the step was needed to fight Maoist rebels in a violent nine year-old internal conflict, but human rights groups say it has led to widespread abuse.

Arbour said she would report regularly to the UN's top human rights body, which is currently meeting here, on any violations committed by either side in the conflict.

The UN will also "advise" the Nepalese government on measures to protect human rights, and support local groups and civil society. Under the agreement, the monitors are explicitly authorised to "seek cooperation" not only of Nepalese security forces but also Maoist rebels, Arbour's office said.