Kathmandu, February 13:

Eight student unions affiliated to various opposition political parties today submitted a memorandum to Kofi Annan, the general secretary of the United Nations, to indict chairman of the Council of Ministers and Home Minister Kamal Thapa for the killing of CPN-UML cadre Umesh Chandra Thapa in Dang on February 8 and produce them before the International Criminal Court for fair trial against them.

The student bodies handed over the memorandum to Mathew Kahane, the resident representative of the UN System in Nepal. The memorandum states that Umesh should be announced a ‘martyr’ and the issue should be raised in the International Criminal Court as Home Minister Thapa had issued “the order to kill civilians”. It also stated that such types

of incident had happened in Doramba and other parts of the country as well in the past.

The student bodies stated that even the Human Rights Organisation’s report on Dang incident has indicated that the shoot-out was an intentional one and Umesh was shot without following basic security guidelines. Earlier, the students took out a rally from the Patan Multiple Campus, chanting slogans against the the government, the Dang killing and the autocracy, before it concluded in front of the UN House at Pulchowk.

Ram Kumar Basnet, vice-president of the All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU), said the students wanted to take the issue to the International Criminal Court as the government killed Umesh in a cold-blooded manner by “giving authority to the security forces to kill civilians”. The government had given unlimited power to the security forces to foil any anti-poll activity on the day for the municipal elections on February 8.

Meanwhile, the Nepal Teachers’ Association (NTA), issuing a press release here today, threatened to announce further protest programmes if the teachers including Mohan Gyawali, president of the association, Keshab Prasad Bhattarai, chairman of the Nepal Teachers’ Union, and other detainees arrested from anti-poll demonstrations a few days ago were not released at the earliest. The government had yesterday released 23 teachers who were arrested from a rally on February 3.