UN slams Nepal's army over torture convictions

KATHMANDU, Dec 21 (Reuters) The United Nations heavily criticised Nepal's army today for its treatment of three officers who were convicted of torturing a 15-year-old girl suspected of being a Maoist rebel nearly three years ago.

The girl died in army custody and the officers were jailed last year for six months after a court-martial found them criminally negligent. They were also fined 1,400 dollars.

''Justice has not been done,'' the Nepal office of the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Commission said in a statement.

It called for an independent investigation and prosecution of the case in a civilian court, saying the army investigation was neither independent nor transparent.

''International standards require that serious human rights violations be tried in civilian courts, not by military tribunals,'' the UN office said.

Army spokesman Brig Gen Ananta Bahadur Thebe said the case had been settled according to the law.

''Now we will have to study the (UN) report,'' he told Reuters.

More than 100 soldiers and junior officers have been punished for human right abuses while fighting the Maoists, officials say.

The security forces and Maoists are also blamed by the United Nations for disappearances of hundreds of people during the conflict, in which 13,000 people died in 10 years leading up to a ceasefire earlier in April.

The Maoists and government signed a landmark peace deal last month declaring an end to the revolt that forced more than 200,000 people to flee and wrecked the aid- and tourism-dependent economy.

Reuters SY GC2057