A new publication from the Asian Human Rights Commission and Advocacy Forum – Nepal, 258 Dark Days, by Jit Man Basnet.
258 Dark Days by Jit Man Basnet (198 pages) was edited by Bruce Van Voorhis and is published by the Asian Human Rights Commission in cooperation with Advocacy Forum – Nepal.
Among the thousands of people who have disappeared in Nepal, Jit Man Basnet is one of the few who has shared the everyday anguish of those whose lives were suddenly snatched from them because they sought to exercise their rights. Mr. Basnet’s autobiographical account of his painful ordeal in 2004 behind the walls of the army’s Bhairabnath Battalion barracks in Kathinandu is rendered in the style of a novel except that it is not a fictional narrative of state-sanctioned violence.
Not only his own 258 days of suffering are rendered in these pages, but the torture, hunger, frail health, and death of his fellow prisoners is described as well. Mr. Basnet’s book speaks to the variety of human rights violations that were pervasive in the country at the time and the forms of torture regularly meted out to prisoners. Woven between the lines of his narrative is the impunity that protected the military from punishment for the horrendous ‘human rights violations they inflicted. Mr. Basnet’s book cries out for Nepal’s new Maoist-led government to ensure justice for the victims and their families – the victims of both sides of the country’s civil war, including those engendered by the Maoists – if Nepal is to enjoy the protection of human rights in the future.
Print copies of 258 Dark Days may be ordered through the AHRC website or from Advocacy Forum Nepal at:
Advocacy Forum Nepal
Santineketan Margh 94/14
Gairidhara,
Kathmandu
Nepal
Tel: 977 1/441-5789
E-mail: info@advocacyforum.org.np
Web site: http://www.advocacyforum.org
Author: Jit Man Basnet
Edited by Bruce Van Voorhis
Published in December 2008 by the Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong and Advocacy Forum, Nepal; 198 pages, Language: English; ISBN 978-962-8314-40-9; PID: AHRC-PUB-018-2008
For orders and enquiries: Email ahrc@ahrc.asia or call +(852) 2698 6339 +(852) 2698 6339 .
Click here to download this publication in PDF format.
