Red Cross team probes Nepali detentions

A Nepalese student shouts slogans during an anti-monarchy demonstration in Kathmandu yesterday. Three students were arrested after a brief protest in the Nepalese capital against last month's takeover by King Gyanendra, witnesses said. About a dozen people representing seven student unions gathered at Maitidevi, a residential area on the outskirts of the capital and shouted slogans such as "reinstate democracy" for about 15 minutes and fled the scene as two van loads of riot police arrived. PHOTO: AFP

Asia-Pacific delegate general Reto Meister is heading the team which arrived on Saturday and hopes to meet King Gyanendra and military officials, the Geneva-based rights group said.

"During his meetings with government officials, Mr. Meister will in particular review issues relating to ICRCs visits to detainees in army custody," the statement said.

After Gyanendra sacked a four-party coalition government last month to tackle a growing Maoist insurgency that has claimed more than 11,000 lives since 1996, the ICRC had urged both the new regime and the Maoists to respect human rights.

Ishwor Koirala, spokesman for the Human Rights Organisation of Nepal, said in March that at least 450 people have been detained since Gyanendra sacked the government on February 1.

A report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said local human rights groups had recorded more than 1,200 disappearances in the past five years alone.

But Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey said last week that "very few people are in detention."