Man arrested in East Sussex over Nepal war crimes

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Scotland Yard detectives investigating alleged acts of torture during the civil war in Nepal have arrested a man in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex.

Officers from a specialist Metropolitan police unit targeting alleged war crimes and human rights abuses abroad held the 46-year-old man at a house in the town shortly after 7am.

The alleged acts happened in 2005 towards the end of a decade-long conflict in which Maoist guerrillas clashed with government forces in an attempt to overthrow the Nepalese monarchy.

The arrested man, who has not been named, is understood to have been a member of the Nepalese government's security forces at a time when King Gyanendra declared a state of emergency. The United Nations has estimated that the 1996-2006 conflict left 13,000 people dead, with another 1,300 missing. The case is seen as potentially significant by campaigners for post-conflict justice in the Himalayan state because, despite well-documented atrocities on both sides, there have so far been no prosecutions in Nepal.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/03/man-arrested-east-sussex-war-crimes-nepal

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Nepal's Colonel Kumar Lama held after court appearance

Col Lama's arrest in St Leonards-on-Sea near Hastings has angered the Nepalese government, who have requested Col Lama's immediate release.

They have summoned the UK ambassador in Kathmandu to protest and instructed the Nepalese embassy in London to submit a protest note to Downing Street.
...
Col Lama is currently employed as a UN peace keeper in South Sudan. He was due to return to Africa on Saturday after a Christmas break to the UK, but was arrested on 3 January.

The court heard the colonel had previously served as a UN peacekeeper in Sierra Leone and twice in Lebanon.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20919827

Interesting that this isn't some guy who was trying to hide away after controversy in his home country - this is someone who was travelling the world working with the United Nations, and has the backing of the present government. As The Guardian article linked in the OP says, he was in the military in 2005, serving the monarchy; the current Prime Minister is a Maoist who would have been on the other side, in 2005.