WUNRN
NEPAL - PHILIPPINE WOMAN JOURNALIST
FORCIBLY JAILED & DETAINED INCOMMUNICADO
Charina Cabrido – WNN
Justice
A group of young police security officers stand on
duty on the street only a stone’s throw away from the Hanuman Dhoka jail in
(WNN) April 5, 2014
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Ranking in the low 29th
percentile with corruption watchdog group TI – Transparency International,
“Public institutions
entrusted to protect people suffer the worst levels of bribery,” outlines TI’s
2013 report. ”Among the eight services evaluated, the police and judiciary
are seen as the two most bribery-prone,” the 2013 report continues.
In a recent exclusive, WNN
– Women News Network received journalist Charina Cabrido’s first-hand account
of her experience inside one of
While the Nepalese
government has made statements to the United Nations in its 2012 Periodic Report that “The vision of
the judiciary is to maintain independent and efficient system of justice so as
to ensure justice for all and through promotion of human rights, and
independent and efficient system of justice,” it has failed to keep its
promises. In contrast cases of reported torture by police officers at
Hanuman Dhoka jail have continued.
Without access to anyone
outside the jail where she was kept Cabrido was arrested without charges;
denied use of a phone during the time of her incarceration; and denied access
to any legal counsel or an attorney.
“The practice of placing
children in prisons along with adult inmates has been fully abolished,”
continued the Government of Nepal in its 2012 statement to the UN.
But Cabrido witnessed the
opposite to be true. In a detailed account of her 15 days in custody she shares
what can happen to anyone who becomes a victim of a corrupt system where
international violations of human rights continue.
The chime of the
bell outside echoed loudly in my room. This has roused me from my sleep and
welcomed me back to reality. It was a chilly morning in February 2014. The
bells ringing are signs that Hindus and Buddhists alike pay for rituals to
chase away power-seeking deities and summon the gods.
Inside a four by six
square meter room are ten other women whom I share the woolen blankets with
while sleeping. The stench of hanging wet socks and underwear exude a vile
odor.
It has been three
days now since I was locked inside Hanuman Dhoka jail. Located primarily in the
middle of
My mind is spinning.
How did I end up here?
Three days ago,
Nepali police took me forcefully inside the jail. The arrest happened after I
attended a district court hearing on a pending case against my ex-husband. The
other party in the case did not appear as I saw my ex-husband outside talking
on his mobile phone. This lead me to my police arrest only a few meters away
from the courtroom.
Despite my aggressive
screams and frightened response toward the groundless detainment, the police
did not present any ‘warrant of arrest’. They did not communicate any basis of
complaint that led to my custody. Six days later as I sat in jail the police
showed me my ‘cybercrime’ charges filed by my ex-husband. Currently I am
fighting in
As days passed I
witnessed scenes inside the jail becoming worse. I became a living witness and
testament to the early morning arrests of women, men and ‘third genders’ by
It was in the jail
that I heard howling cries, beatings, shouting and murmurs of pain and grief.
One Indian woman was
arrested because she was walking ‘late at night’ in
At times there were
twelve of us in one room. On other days we were fourteen.
Those who came in
from the early morning arrests slept sitting up with their backs at the wall.
In the morning and evening we were served dal bhat (mung bean soup and rice).
But it came from server boys with who dipped there hands in the soup to serve
us while scooping from big pails. When we suffered under attacks of diarrhea
and stomach problems, the police gave us medicines.
Ball pens, paper,
rubber bands and mobile phones were not allowed inside the jail. Scarves and
shawls were also not exempt. A mother’s shawl was taken away as she tried to
cover herself while nursing her 15-month old baby. This pleased the male police
since they now had a ‘view’ to look in as they passed by our padlocked room.
In the succeeding
days I feared for my life inside my cell.
Security became a
serious concern as a series of violent brawls lead to a bleeding guy’s head as
he was taken to the hospital. These were the same prisoners who walked past our
cell day and night. I cringed at their stares. And I shivered every time the police
pummeled batons in our jail cell just to scare us.
Taking a shower was
like a shot at the moon. The doors were open and used by both male and female
prisoners. The only refuge for us was a visit from our friends and family which
was confined to a small room outside. With prisoners handcuffed to each other,
and private conversations lost in the air, relatives talked at the same time.
Certainly it seemed
the state of prison and prisoners in
Based on this United Nations human rights principle,
“All persons under any form of detention or imprisonment shall be treated in a
humane manner and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.”
Apparently this was
not the case for all of us inside the Hanuman Dhoka jail, particularly the
trans genders.
When I was taken to
the Attorney General’s Office in
I knew then the
police had violated the rule that, “anyone who is arrested shall be informed at
the time of his arrest of the reason for his arrest and shall be promptly
informed of any charges against him.” More so, I was not allowed to call my
family. And if not for a missed dental appointment in Kathmandu my home
country’s Embassy, Nepal Consulate of the Republic of The Philippines, would
never had known that I was missing and was already jailed inside the prison.
Even without any
legal background, any individual knows that a detained or imprisoned person
shall be entitled to notify members of their family upon arrest, detention or
imprisonment. I was not given that right and begged the police, unsuccessfully,
to give me a chance to call my parents.
This is the crux of
the problem. The situation in Hanuman Dhoka jail is similar to other prisons
throughout
This is not what is
inside the Hanuman Dhoka jail, or in the 73 prisons in various districts of the
country. Based on available statistics, of the 73 prisons in
The delay in
bringing offenders to trial is the main cause of prison overcrowding. Since the
facility in Basantapur only serves as a place of custody for offenders with
cases under investigation, overcrowding makes it difficult for offenders to
reintegrate back into society as they carry the consequences of trauma inside
jail and back to the free world once they are released. As a result the
overcrowded prison can trigger tensions that lead to increased disruptive
social behavior, physical and psychological effects and traumatic social
withdrawal.
The Asian Human
Rights Commission has reiterated that the current conditions of detention in
One alarming
scenario is that prisoners in the Hanuman Dhoka jail were mixed with one
another despite one prisoner having HIV-AIDS and another suffering with
tuberculosis. International standards call for separation of prisoners and
detainees as per the status of their case, their health conditions or their
genders.
What makes my own
experience seemingly more disturbing was the fact that the various unwarranted
arrests made by
This sends out a
real message from the Himalayan country. At the very least the government is
not serious about human rights, given the tenacity and spread of a culture of
impunity. As Maoist rebels walk freely away from their crimes in
Although normal life
routines do happen outside on the streets of Nepal where bells ring to summon
the gods and drive away evil spirits; this does not free the prisoners inside
Hanuman Dhoka jail from a nightmare. I was released from that nightmare fifteen
days after I was arrested without knowing the cause.
Today I bear the
scars as I tell my story.
__________________________
Charina “Chin” Cabrido
is an environmental researcher, a journalist and a cycling advocate from the
This story was written
during her 15-day custody in the Hanuman Dhoka jail in