Nepal must avoid 'gross violations': UN rights chief

Geneva, Friday (AFP) - Nepal must avoid a repeat of "gross violations" of human rights and international law, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights said Thursday.

"It is a tragedy for the people of Nepal that full-scale armed conflict may now resume," Louise Arbour said after three police died Thursday in the first clashes in the Himalayan kingdom since Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Pranchanda on Monday announced the end of a four-month ceasefire.

The commissioner said her office would monitor the conduct of both parties and would report to the UN human rights commission.

"But there need not and must not be the same gross violations of international humanitarian law and human right standards that have been perpetrated during previous phases of the conflict," Arbour said.

Meanwhile at least three policemen were killed and two others injured in clashes with Maoists in southwest Nepal Thursday, the first deaths since the end of a rebel ceasefire this week, police said.

"At least three policemen of the Armed Police Force were killed and two others injured when they clashed with Maoist rebels near Ragha airport in Nepalgunj, far southwestern Nepal Thursday evening," a police official said.

"In the clashes, the rebels are also learnt to have suffered some casualties," the official, who did not wish to be identified, said.

Authorities were awaiting further details of the clashes, the official said.

In other violence, three soldiers were injured in a bomb blast by suspected Maoists in western Nepal Thursday, the army said.

One bomb exploded near an army vehicle in the western tourist town of Pokhara and the other went off at a local government education office in Morang in the southeast.