By IANS,
New Delhi: A Delhi-based regional human rights group has criticised Nepal government’s appointment of a senior officer accused of alleged human rights abuses as the acting chief of the army staff.
The Nepal cabinet had Friday approved Major General Toran Singh as the acting army chief, with the incumbent going away to the US to attend a seminar.
A press release issued by Asian Centre for Human Rights said that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in a 2006 report had stated that Toran Singh, then the commander of 10th brigade “knew or ought to have known about these actions…”, referring to alleged cases of torture, summary execution and disappearance.
ACHR director Suhas Chakma said that if the Nepal government “is prepared to promote officers implicated in serious crimes to the highest office then the international community will be forced to assume that other rewards, including prestigious UN service, will be offered to other officers with similarly appalling records”.
Singh’s promotion has been described by the human rights body as a “powerful symbol of the government’s reluctance to end the endemic impunity in Nepal” for human rights abuses.
ACHR has urged United Nation’s department of Peacekeeping Operations to initiate vetting of the individual Nepali soldiers who are nominated for peacekeeping operations. Nepal is one the largest contributors of troops to UN peacekeeping missions worldwide.