UN condemns violence at Nepal student protests

KATHMANDU, Dec 6 (Reuters) A UN human rights body has criticised Nepali police for using excessive force against protesting students and has called on the authorities to exercise restraint.

Dozens of people have been hurt in the past week as students took to the streets, angered by a government plan to make permanent the jobs of thousands of temporary and poorly trained school teachers without open competition.

In a statement issued late yesterday, the Nepal arm of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also asked students to be peaceful, saying demonstrators had attacked police with stones.

''OHCHR-Nepal is very concerned about violent demonstrations which have taken place these past few days in the Kathmandu Valley, in the context of student protests, and the excessive use of force by police in responding to the violence,'' it said.

It said monitors had witnessed police beating demonstrators repeatedly over the head with batons.

Critics say the government move would lead to a drop in standards in a country where official figures estimate only 54 per cent of 26 million people can read and write, and where the education system suffers from massive underinvestment.

REUTERS SP HS0922