2007年VOA标准英语-Nepal Army Defends Itself Against Allegations o

By Liam Cochrane
Kathmandu
19 June 2007

The Nepal army has defended its human rights reputation in the face of allegations it is responsible for the forced disappearances¹ of up to 1,000 people during the country's civil war. The army promises to cooperate with a new high-level commission to investigate the cases, ordered by a recent landmark² Supreme³ Court verdict. Liam Cochrane has more from Kathmandu.

Halfway⁴ through Nepal's 10-year civil war, the Nepal army was brought in, to back up the struggling police force in the fight against Maoist rebels.

Nepal army soldiers (file)

The years after the army's deployment⁵ saw some of the fiercest fighting and resulted in the arrests of hundreds of suspected Maoists.

The International Red Cross says almost 1,000 of those arrested are still missing.

Sandra Beidas is the chief of protection at the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner⁶ for Human Rights. She says families of those who disappeared continue to suffer.

"Obviously not knowing whether their loved ones are alive or dead, what happened to them, is just a constant anguish⁷, and in a sense it's a form of mental torture," she said. "And especially sometimes when the authorities say they were killed in a confrontation⁸ when the families know very well that they were actually taken away to a military barracks and disappeared from the military barracks."

The army says it is not hiding the whereabouts of the disappeared and says it is serious about reducing human rights violations⁹ by its troops. A spokesman for the army reports 162 soldiers have been punished for human rights offenses¹⁰ since 2001.

Colonel Dharma Baniya is the deputy director of the army's human rights directorate.

"In 2001 when army was mobilized initially¹¹, we had not educated knowledge, to be very frank, at that time we had committed some violations (in) 2001, two (2002), three (2003)," he explained. "After 2003 and four (2004), it got down. 2005 we have got less than five, less than 10 allegations. In 2006 and seven (2007) we have committed zero violations, O.K."

Baniya says the army has received allegations of almost 4,000 disappearances and has investigated 79 percent of them, with 783 cases still pending¹². He did not give details about the results of the investigation¹³ into any of the cases.

In many of the pending cases, Baniya says human rights groups have not provided the army with enough information to fully¹⁴ investigate.

But the U.N. disagrees. Late last year it released to the public and the government a detailed¹⁵ report on the detention¹⁶ and torture of hundreds of people in an army barracks in Kathmandu. It says 46 people are still unaccounted for.

"We have been extremely disappointed in the lack of follow up," he said. "We know that there was an army task force that investigated the cases following the report but the army did not give us a copy. They have given us some information on what they say has happened to a very small number of those individuals and in a number of those cases we have actually seen that the information is inaccurate¹⁷ and we still consider the people disappeared."

Nepal's Supreme Court recently ruled that in 83 cases of forced disappearances, the security forces were responsible. The court wants a high- level commission to be established to investigate and said those responsible should be punished.

That ruling brought some hope for the families of the disappeared, such as Ekraj Bhandari, whose son was arrested in 2002 for his involvement in a student union linked to the rebels.

"Still now, he is alive or not? I don't know," Bhandari said. "My family, my wife and I, we don't know about him, where he is. Still now, he's alive or not - we don't know."

The army says it will fully cooperate with the commission the Supreme Court wants organized.

During the war, human rights abuses were committed on both sides, with the rebels accused of killing¹⁸ thousands of people who opposed them or were suspected of informing on them. About 14 thousand of people, most of them civilians¹⁹, died in the war.

Last year, Nepal's unpopular king was forced to give up control of the government, and other political parties invited the Maoists to join them in an interim²⁰ government. Since then, the Maoists have gathered their forces and weapons into camps where they can be monitored by the United Nations as the nation prepares to elect an assembly which will rewrite the country's constitution.

1 disappearances   

n.消失( disappearance的名词复数 )；丢失；失踪；失踪案

参考例句：

• Most disappearances are the result of the terrorist activity. 大多数的失踪案都是恐怖分子造成的。 来自辞典例句
• The espionage, the betrayals, the arrests, the tortures, the executions, the disappearances will never cease. 间谍活动、叛党卖国、逮捕拷打、处决灭迹，这种事情永远不会完。 来自英汉文学

2 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。

3 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

4 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

5 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

6 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

7 anguish   

n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼

参考例句：

• She cried out for anguish at parting.分手时，她由于痛苦而失声大哭。
• The unspeakable anguish wrung his heart.难言的痛苦折磨着他的心。

8 confrontation   

n.对抗，对峙，冲突

参考例句：

• We can't risk another confrontation with the union.我们不能冒再次同工会对抗的危险。
• After years of confrontation,they finally have achieved a modus vivendi.在对抗很长时间后，他们最后达成安宁生存的非正式协议。

9 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

10 offenses   

n.进攻( offense的名词复数 )；（球队的）前锋；进攻方法；攻势

参考例句：

• It's wrong of you to take the child to task for such trifling offenses. 因这类小毛病责备那孩子是你的不对。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Thus, Congress cannot remove an executive official except for impeachable offenses. 因此，除非有可弹劾的行为，否则国会不能罢免行政官员。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法

11 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

12 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

13 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

14 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

15 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

16 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

17 inaccurate   

adj.错误的，不正确的，不准确的

参考例句：

• The book is both inaccurate and exaggerated.这本书不但不准确，而且夸大其词。
• She never knows the right time because her watch is inaccurate.她从来不知道准确的时间因为她的表不准。

18 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

19 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

20 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。