Detainee’s family, GHRD seeks action for urgent release
Kathmandu, January 25: The family sources from Shantiram Acharya, detained by Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) on charge of being Maoists militant, has strongly sought the attention of international human rights bodies to probe for the immediate release.
Devi Acharya, senior brother of Shantiram, talking in telephone on Thursday, informed Bhutan News Service (BNS) that his brother was suspected to have gone mental depression since few months.
“He was out from the home without any information since two months. I am confirmed my brother is not a Maoist militant. I know he was a good writer and is reported to have worked in different newspapers run in the camps, but was passive since one-and-half years” he said.
Yet there are no any formal reports of his involvement in media sectors.
At the same time a highly placed source from the Communists Party of Bhutan (MLM), who urged anonymity, claimed Acharya not to be a Maoist militant.
Meanwhile, Nanda Lal Gautam, the head of Sector ‘D’ also confirmed Shantiram not to be a Maoist. “He was a simple youth” he said.
Shantiram, a permanent resident of Dagana district in Bhutan, is currently a registered exiled Bhutanese in Beldangi-II, Sector D/1-85.
Meanwhile, the Bhutan Chapter of Global Human Rights Defense (GHRD-Bhutan) on Thursday has sought deep attention of international human rights and press freedom organization to take urgent intervention to protect him from physical torture.
“The allegations leveled against Acharya appears that the RBA has hatched out fabricated allegations against him simply to save the face of royal regime, as its Foreign Minister, Khandu Wangchuk had reported in the recently concluded winter session of the Bhutanese National Assembly that "people in the camps in Nepal are ready made terrorists”, the press statement reads, adding- Santiram Acharya being from the refugee camp, it became the best weapon for the Bhutanese regime to use his arrest in the best interest of the regime.
Considering torture in police custody is most inhuman in the police and army barracks in Bhutan, the GHRD Bhutan is also showed its deeply concern about the life and liberty of Santiram Acharya, the arrest of which is a direct violation of the provisions of international instruments like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 19) and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
“The GHRD Bhutan, thus, seeks urgent intervention/action from the international human rights organizations like the GHRD Head Office (The Hague), the Amnesty International (London), Human Rights Watch (New York) and International Committee for Red Cross (Geneva) in the interest of his justice and freedom to media”, the statement added.
Meanwhile, Shantiram Acharya is learnt to have shown active physical participation in the ongoing sit-in protest staged in front of the UN house in Kathmandu. When looked in the attendance register at the sit-in, he was present there from January 1, 2007 until January 14.
Homnath Ghimire, sit-in coordinator informed BNS that Acharya was found abnormal in acts during most of the conversations. Bhutan News Service