The annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released by the US Department of State also said members of the security forces committed some human rights abuses during 2008."The Maoists, the Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League (YCL), and members of other small, often ethnically based armed groups committed numerous grave human rights abuses," said the report released by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington DC.
The report has said impunity for human rights violators, threats against the media, arbitrary arrest, and lengthy pretrial detention were "serious problems".
The report added that police "occasionally" used excessive and lethal force in response to continued demonstrations throughout the country. "Numerous armed groups, largely in the Tarai region… engaged in attacks against various entities, including civilians, government officials, members of particular ethnic groups, each other, or Maoists," the report said, adding that violence against women and trafficking in persons, mainly women and girls, continued.
The report has been posted in the website of the US Embassy in Nepal.
Releasing the report, Clinton said that the US will pursue greater respect for human rights “as we engage other nations and peoples around the world”, according to a statement issued on Thursday by the US Embassy in Kathmandu.
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