KATHMANDU, July 15, 2007  –  Police in Kathmandu today stand accused of assault on ‘métis’ (transgender people) in Ratna Park last night after it was discovered that the métis were carrying condoms.

The police are said to have beaten, stripped, and in some cases, sexually abused five métis.

This incident happened as human rights groups were due to meet MPs to discuss how gay rights could be included in the new constitution.

Today, the police officer thought to be responsible for the assaults acknowledged to the Blue Diamond Society – Nepal’s NGO for gay, lesbian and transgender rights – and representatives of Human Rights Watch, including Scott Long, that such beatings are regular police practice.

The officer added that carrying condoms is evidence of illegal acts.

Five métis, Sanya, Sandhya, Simmi and two others had gathered in Ratna Park in the heart of Kathmandu, around 8.30 in the evening.

They saw three police officers, including Sub-Inspector Pradeep Chand from Janasewa Police station, approaching.

The métis said that they were ordered by the police to immediately stop or they would be shot.  One of them managed to escape, Sunil Pant of Blue Diamond Society reported today.

Then the police started to randomly beat the remaining four with batons.  The métis were also slapped and kicked.

The police also searched their pockets and when they saw about 200 rupees they began abusing them verbally.

“You chakkas and Hijras, motherfuckers, you make this money by anal sex and prostitution,” the police are reported to have said.

Sanya told the police she had heart problem and begged them not to beat her harshly.  Though police relented slightly, they were very harsh with other métis.

Then, the told the métis to take their clothes off so officers could check for signs of sexual intercourse.  Police sexually abused the métis by demanding they pull their foreskins back to check for sperm, using their mobile phone lights to check the métis’ genitals.

They also searched the métis’ bags, and, when they found  unused condoms, they demanded to know why they carried them.

When the métis told police they used them themselves in sex, police started beating them up for carrying condoms, saying the métis were practicing unnatural and illegal sexual behaviour.

Simmi managed to walk out of the park, saying she would try to find another friend who had run away when police arrived.  

Simmi saw Alex, an HIV/AIDS worker for the Blue Diamond Society and explained what was going on inside the park.

Alex (whose méti name is ‘Juli’) called the emergency police number for support.  Two officers from the nearby Durbar Marg police station accompanied Juli into the park.

But instead of assisting, they watched the assaults.

Three officers, including Sub-Inspector Chand, were still beating the métis.  The Sub-Inspector recognized Juli and caught her by the hand.

He rummaged through her bag, and started kicking her and beating her with a baton on her back, legs and face.

Juli was also abused verbally and accused of practicing immoral and illegal behaviour, as she was also found carrying condoms in her bag.

The two police from Durbar Marg Police station didn’t react at all, the métis claimed.  They were just silent spectators of the abuse and beating of the métis by the three policemen from Janasewa police station.

Alex told the police “not to beat any of us here: rather, take us if we have committed any crime”.

Sub-Inspector Pradeep Chand told Juli not to misbehave with police, and not to try to “act smart”.

Chand told the two policemen from Durbar Marg Police station to take Juli and Simmi to the jail.  They were taken to the van waiting outside Ratna Park.

But the police officers did not take them to Durbar Marg Police Station, saying: “Ratna Park is not in our duty area, so get off”.

Juli and Simmi decided to go to Durbar Marg Police Station anyway to file the complaint, but Juli was told “you can't file a complaint as you need a 5 rupees stamp”.

The other three métis were taken by a Janasewa Station police van for a time – then forced to run away to three different directions.

This morning. Juli went back Durbar Marg Police Station along with Sunil Pant and two other Blue Diamond Society staff.  Two representatives form Human Rights Watch accompanied them.

They were told at Durbar Marg police station that Ratna Park was not under their area of duty, and to approach Janasewa Police Station.

At  Janasewa Police Station, the human rights activists and métis spoke to Police Inspector U. P. Chaturbedi, Sub-Inspector Pardeep Chand, the driver of the van; and another officer involved in the previous night’s abuse.

Sub-Inspector Pradeep claimed that illegal and immoral behaviour goes on in the park, asserting that police have to control such illegal and immoral behaviour.

Scott Long from Human Rights Watch asked what evidence he had of illegal acts. 

The Sub-Inspector replied: “We found métis carrying condoms, and the métis also told us that they use condom while having anal or oral sex.  So it’s our regular campaign to control métis inside the Ratna Park and elsewhere.”

In a statement today, Blue Diamond Society denounced the “systematic, brutal attack against the marginalized community of métis in Nepal and condemned the degrading action of the Nepal police who are supposed to protect the citizens”.

“Criminalising métis for carrying condoms and using condoms is a devastating signal of police attitudes and behavior.  It will have a very negative impact on sexual health and preventing HIV/STI amongst métis and homosexuals in Nepal.

“Blue Diamond Society calls on the Nepal Police, Government and other national and international human rights organizations to take action against the Nepal police so that police officers who are supposed to protect the citizens of the country cannot commit such acts with impunity from the law they are here to uphold.

“Our rights for protection from HIV and STIs must not be violated,” the Blue Diamond Society statement concluded.

■  Mr. Long, the director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch tonight described as “astonishing” the indifference of the police to both HIV prevention and basic human rights standards.

“The métis were allowed to file a complaint with police last night after great difficulty,” he said by email to UK Gay News.

“Boris Dittrich (also from Human rights Watch) and I went to Durbar Marg Police Station with them this morning to see that the complaint was properly registered.

“Sub-inspector Pradeep Chand admitted to beating the metis, acknowledged this was regular police practice, and said it was necessary to keep public order.

“He and the chief of the station said clearly that the fact the metis carried condoms in their bags (Alex, who led in filing the complaint, is an HIV outreach worker) showed they were engaging in criminal acts.

“The indifference to both HIV prevention and basic human rights standards was astonishing and a testimony to a still-rampant police attitude that LGBT people have neither civil nor human rights.

“Even though Alex showed the police the bruises from his beating, they showed complete indifference and we have no confidence that the complaint will be investigated.”

And Mr. Long pledged: “At HRW we’re going to follow up with the police, the Minister of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Law and Justice, and the National Human Rights Commission, which has been extremely supportive on this issue, to insist that it is [properly investigated].”

 

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