http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050126/kyodo/d87rqdd01.html

Human rights abusers in Nepal will not go unpunished: U.N. official
(Kyodo) _

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour on Wednesday warned leaders of Nepal's Maoist insurgency that they cannot escape punishment for human rights abuses. "In every part of the world, political and military leaders who thought themselves immune from persecution are now answering before the law for the gross human rights abuses they have perpetrated," Arbour said.

She was addressing a press conference at the end of her four-day visit to Nepal, which she said was motivated by a growing concern over reports of a grave human rights crisis afflicting the Himalayan kingdom.

Nepalese people are subjected to violence and brutality which the warring Maoist rebels have chosen as the means to advance their cause, she said, adding many of those means are contrary to fundamental human rights and international laws.

Agents of the state too have abused fundamental rights of the people and a climate of impunity prevails, said Arbour, who is the most senior U.N. official to visit Nepal in recent times.

"I warn the leaders of the insurgency not to misread developments in the wider world nor to believe that they can operate outside of the law," she said.

"It is increasingly clear that we have entered an era of accountability," she added. "In every part of the world, political and military leaders who thought themselves immune from prosecution are now answering before the law for the gross human rights abuses they have perpetrated."