AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Undated :Deaths and disappearances surged in South Asia in 2004 fuelled by separatist conflicts and corruption, London-based Amnesty International said in its annual human rights report released Wednesday.

Amnesty International said Nepal and Bangladesh witnessed the sharpest increase in rights violations as a Maoist rebellion raged in the impoverished Himalayan kingdom and a specialised crime-fighting force in the eastern delta nation led to a surge in deaths of suspected criminals.

In Sri Lanka, Amnesty said a split in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebel group led to increased fighting for territory and several deaths that have imperiled a Norwegian-brokered three-year-old ceasefire with the government of the island nation.

As well, Amnesty noted the continued recruitment of child soldiers by the Tamil rebels and numerous reports of torture by the Sri Lankan police.

The report said 416 people disappeared after being arrested by the Royal Nepalese Army and police forces in 2004. The Nepal Human Rights Commission estimated the number at 707.

‘The security forces were responsible for an unprecedented number of disappearances, a rise in unlawful killings, and continued arbitrary arrests and torture,’ the Amnesty report said of Nepal.

In Bangladesh, Amnesty said at least 147 people died in 2004 in what the government portrayed as crossfire deaths between suspected criminals and the Rapid Action Battalion.

‘There were concerns that the deaths, which usually occurred in desolate locations after the arrest of the suspects, were deliberate killings by the RAB,’ Amnesty said.

The 4,000-strong security force, made up of members of the police and armed services, was created to enforce law and order in the country.

The government credits it with cutting crimes like extortion by half.

Amnesty also noted a growing tide of political violence in Bangladesh last year, including a grenade assault on a rally

last August. More than 20 party activists died in the attack, described by Washington

as an assassination attempt on former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.

In India, the rights group said authorities have not successfully investigated more that 8,000 disappearances since a separatist conflict erupted in the Indian-held portion of Kashmir in 1989.

However, the report said peace talks in 2004 between India and Pakistan over Kashmir had led to a series of confidence-building measures aimed at reducing violence.

In neighbouring Pakistan, Amnesty said the military-led government used emerg- ency powers aimed at combating terrorism to arrest journalists and political protestors.

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