Since February 1, when the Royal Nepal Army supported King
Gyanendra's takeover of power, the military has enforced restrictions
on the press and human rights activists. The military shut down the
primary source of news for most Nepalis: radio news broadcasts. In
many cases, even sports news is banned. Similarly, newspapers face
stringent guidelines about what they can report.

The army has pursued its crackdown beyond the capital Kathmandu.
In Nepalganj, the largest city in western Nepal, military authorities
directed the civilian administration to issue guidelines restricting the
content of newspapers. These 12-point guidelines prohibit any
criticism of the monarchy, the state of emergency, or news that is
intended to "demoralize" civil servants. News about strikes is also
forbidden, as is coverage of Maoist rebel attacks (although news on
civilians killed by the Maoists is permitted). The guidelines also
prohibit the coverage of information from any political parties and
other political organizations, and bans the publication of news from
the international media on the Maoists and other political groups in
Nepal. Since the beginning of the civil war in 1996, Maoist rebels have
been responsible for numerous atrocities against civilians.

Journalists in Nepalganj were summoned to a meeting with the local
military commander and told they would not face any problems so
long as they followed the guidelines. A journalist who attended the
meeting said: "I don't have any questions about what could happen if I
violated the guidelines. At any rate, our editors are too scared to assign
us stories that could lead to criticism [of the army] or publish our
stories if we write them."

"The army's clampdown on Nepal's media is more than a matter of
free speech," said Brad Adams, Asia Director at Human Rights Watch.
"Prohibiting public scrutiny of the army's actions puts Nepalis at
greater risk of abuses."

Journalists and human rights activists in the trekking resort city of
Pokhara, about 150 kilometers west of Kathmandu, said that they
could not report on the army's armed crackdown on students at the
Prithwi Narayan University campus on February 1. In this attack, one
student was shot in the leg and 58 were detained and beaten while in
custody.

According to witnesses, students began demonstrating immediately
after the royal proclamation of the king's takeover. Protesting students
burned a government motorcycle, and the protest eventually escalated
into a standoff between students inside the campus throwing stones
and police and army units outside the gates responding with teargas.

At around 4 P.M., some 80 to 100 army troops, assisted by a helicopter,
broke through the university gate, and some troops fired their guns.
One student, 19-year-old Geeta K.C., was shot in the right thigh as she
was observing the demonstration from about 150 meters away. Two
female students who tried to help her were later arrested, along with 56
male students.

The students were blindfolded and taken to Fulbari Army Barracks,
where they were beaten, several of them severely. Soldiers beat a
student leader so severely that he suffers from impaired vision in his
right eye. Other students were repeatedly kicked by troops while they
remained blindfolded and in some cases handcuffed. The students
were released the next day after the dean of the university interceded
with security officials.

About 170 political activists and student leaders remain under arrest in
Nepal. (To see a list of known cases, based on available information,
please see:  http://hrw.org/asia/nepal021505.pdf) Journalists, rights
advocates and civil society activists from several cities told Human
Rights Watch that they have significantly curtailed their activities
because they fear army reprisals. Although few political party activists
at the district level have been detained, most political parties have
ceased operating openly.

Human Rights Watch welcomed the release of several human rights
activists, including Sindhunath Pyakurel, a prominent human rights
attorney and former president of the Nepal Bar Association. He was
released just two hours before Nepal's Supreme Court was scheduled
to hear his habeas corpus petition. Pyakurel, whose heart condition had
prompted international concern about his treatment, said that he had
been treated well in detention.

In light of the thousands of "disappearances" that have occurred in the
context of the government's armed conflict with Maoist rebels, the
most new cases in any country in recent years, Human Rights Watch is
especially concerned for the safety of those in detention.

Several countries withdrew their ambassadors from Nepal this week in
protest of the king's actions, including India, the United States, Britain,
France and Germany.

"The army's tightening of restrictions on the media reflect its
deepening grip on political power in Nepal," said Adams.
"International pressure on Nepal must be directed at the army as well
as the king. The king must immediately lift these restrictions on the
media, and return the military to civilian control."