British authorities have been accused of funding a four-year intelligence operation in Nepal that led to Maoist rebels being arrested, tortured and killed during the country’s civil war.
Thomas Bell, the author of a new book on the conflict, says MI6 funded safe houses and provided training in surveillance and counter-insurgency tactics to Nepal’s army and spy agency, the National Investigation Department (NID) under “Operation Mustang”, launched in 2002.
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“According to senior Nepalese intelligence and army officials involved in the operation, British aid greatly strengthened their performance and led to about 100 arrests,” said Bell, whose book Kathmandu is released in south Asia on Thursday.
“It’s difficult to put an exact number on it, but certainly some of those who were arrested were tortured and disappeared,” he said.
There's the usual government denial that their spies ever participate, condone, support etc torture, ending with
We would never authorise any action in the knowledge or belief that torture would take place at the hands of a third party.
And that's the problem right there: they pretended they didn't know the consequences of their actions, so they could pursue their geopolitical aims. Its about plausible deniability, not ethical behaviour.
This has happened too often: the US, Pakistan, Libya, and now Nepal. There is a clear pattern of behaviour here of support for and collusion in torture. Those responsible for it need to be identified, dragged kicking and screaming into the light of day, and prosecuted. And if the British government won't do it, then the UN should do it for them.