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In Nepal, U.N. Rights Czar Flaunts Wrong Insignia

By Maila Baje

Ian Martin must be having the time of his life. The former secretary-general of Amnesty International has inspired new hope in Nepalis of all stripes, ever since he arrived in Kathmandu last year to open a U.N. human rights office.

Under an agreement between the United Nations and the Nepalese government, Martin heads a team of monitors to try to establish accountability and prevent further abuses by all sides in the 10-year-old armed conflict with Maoist rebels.

In the latest of his high-profile public appearances in Kathmandu, Martin released a report by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights that described, among other things, how the kingdom has descended into full-scale civil war.

Among the report's principal demands: Nepalese soldiers responsible for human rights violations should be banned from participating in international peacekeeping missions.

The report, which will be presented to the 62nd session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights starting in Geneva next month, will be a summing up Martin's performance in the kingdom.

At the meeting, the royal government is expected to face grilling for its failure to reciprocate the Maoists' four-month unilateral truce. How high the Maoists' murderous rampage during the truce will figure on the U.N. agenda remains unclear.

The rebels had explicitly assured Martin that they would not use physical violence in their campaign to thwart Nepal's municipal polls. But they ended up murdering two candidates and injuring and abducting dozens of political workers and civilians.

The Royal Nepalese Army, over the last three years, has punished 161 soldiers - ranging from withholding promotion to jail terms between six and 10 years - for different human rights violations. From Martin's pronouncements over the last year, it can safely be assumed that this - and other relevant facts - would be played down, if not entirely glossed over, in Geneva.

Doubtless, Martin arrived in Kathmandu with an impressive bio. He has 30 years of experience in human rights, both with non-governmental organizations and with the United Nations.

Maila Baje pondered a bit. East Timor is perhaps Martin's most shining moment, inspiring him to write an entire monograph on self-determination there. Bosnia, too, can be counted as a success, but probably more because of Bill Clinton than anyone else.

As for Martin's other stints, let the proper nouns speak for themselves: Ethiopia and Eritrea, Sudan, Rwanda. Do these places evoke tranquility of any kind?

As for Rwanda, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had to apologize in 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the massacre there, that the world body had failed that country. Of course, Annan didn't mention that he was the U.N.'s Under-Secretary for Peace-Keeping Operations in 1994.

Martin has exhibited a deft appreciation of the bureaucratic maze the United Nations has become. A Nepalese lawyer recently filed a petition urging Martin's office to expedite the reinstatement of Nepal's House of Representatives, a key demand of the seven-party alliance against King Gyanendra's direct rule.

The lawyer, Dhruba Koirala, complained that the Supreme Court had delayed hearing on his case and apparently his human rights had been violated.

Evidently, Martin wanted to relish every moment of this vanity. Where else could he find a real lawyer so awed by his omnipotence? Even his newest interns at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and International Center for Transitional Justice knew better than that.

But Martin knew he couldn't disappoint his Nepalese visitor by raising issues of improper jurisdiction and the like. So, in classic U.N. bureaucratic style, Martin passed the buck upwards.

He told Koirala that his message would be conveyed to Annan, already neck-deep in allegations that his son, Kojo, profited from Saddam Hussein's oil-for-food kickbacks.

It's all in the U.N. family.

Maila Baje writes about Nepal at http://www.nepalinetbook.blogspot.com/