(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed its dismay after Maoists revealed they were responsible for the murder of Dhana Bahadur Rokka Magar, a journalist for the state-run Radio Nepal. The rebels had abducted the journalist on 1 August 2002. RSF called the murder of Magar “a tragic illustration of the politics of terror that Maoists impose […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed its dismay after Maoists revealed they were responsible for the murder of Dhana Bahadur Rokka Magar, a journalist for the state-run Radio Nepal. The rebels had abducted the journalist on 1 August 2002.
RSF called the murder of Magar “a tragic illustration of the politics of terror that Maoists impose in the zones they control. Even if public media journalists make themselves mouthpieces for government policies, it is horrifying that they should be systematically accused of being spies and murdered like this,” the organisation said.
The revelation about Magar’s killing came on 17 March 2005, after his widow, Dil Kumari Rokka Magar, told a member of Radio Nepal management in Surkhet, western Nepal, that the Maoists had claimed responsibility for her husband’s murder at a meeting of the Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist (CPN-Maoist), on 22 October 2004.
Information obtained by RSF suggests that Magar was killed by armed party militants on 30 January 2003, in Khawang jungle, Rukum district, western Nepal.
Magar, a news reporter for the Magar-language programme “Kham”, was kidnapped on 1 August 2002, when Maoist rebels stopped the bus he was travelling on from Jaluke region to Surkhet. The rebels ordered the journalist off the bus and forced him to go with them. Nothing more was heard of him afterwards.
On 16 August 2004, the Maoists admitted to the murder of another Radio Nepal reporter, Dekendra Raj Thapa (see IFEX alerts of 20 and 17 August and 12 July 2004). Shortly afterwards, Maoist leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara apologised for the killing of the journalist, in an 11 September letter addressed to the leadership of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ). The Maoist leader also announced that he had instructed all Maoist groups to release kidnapped journalists (see alert of 5 October 2004). However the CPN-Maoists are still holding one journalist, Kul Bahadur Malla, a western Nepal correspondent for the “Karnali Sandesh” newspaper. Malla was abducted in June 2003 (see alert of 22 September 2003).
Comrade Prachanda, leader of the CPN-Maoists, is listed by RSF as one of the “predators” of press freedom.
