Nepalese kidnap soldiers jailed

By Sushil Sharma
BBC correspondent in Kathmandu

Soldiers are accused of human rights abuses

Four soldiers in Nepal have been given prison sentences for attempted extortion and kidnapping offences.

Disciplinary action has been initiated against three others.

A senior military official said the soldiers had been jailed for up to three years.

Last month more than 40 junior army officers were disciplined on charges of using forged educational certificates to try to gain promotion.

Inquiry ordered

The military official said on Wednesday that another two soldiers had been demoted and that an army major had been forced to resign for negligence.

A court of inquiry was ordered more than a year ago following reports that the accused had attempted extortion and kidnappings in the district of Banke in the south-west of Nepal.

The authorities say that investigations into reports of human rights abuses by the army are continuing.

Nepal's independent Human Rights Commission recently said that the army shot dead 17 Maoist workers last month, after holding them at Doramba village in the eastern hill district of Ramechhap.

The London-based human rights group, Amnesty International, has also voiced concern at the incident and called for an inquiry.

The killings were followed by a break-down of the seven-month peace process aimed at ending the Maoist insurgency in which nearly 8,000 people have died over the past eight years.