A Nepalese athlete who is planning to compete in the Wellington Outgames has been arrested in a demonstration in Kathmandu.
Roshan Mahato was among five dozen LGBT activists were nabbed from outside the official Government building Singha Durbar on Tuesday, while waiting for an appointment with Home Minister Bhim Rawal.
They had been given verbal confirmation of an appointment with the Home Minister, who they hoped to meet to express their concern over the government's refusal to issue citizenship certificates to members of third gender, despite a 2007 directive to do so from the Supreme Court.
There are over 100,000 people of third gender in Nepal. Nepalnews.com reports they are deprived of various facilities like making a passport, going abroad for work or study, buying insurance or property, due to lack of a citizenship certificate.
Police say the group was arrested for staging a hunger-strike in front of Singha Durbar, which is a prohibited area for demonstrations and strikes.
They were detained for several hours in police custody.
Mahato, a runner and passionate LGBTI rights advocate, says they were kept for four hours without food and water or any place to sit and police tried to take their cell phones and laptops. He says while they were in custody a number of journalists and human rights advocates came and took pictures and interviewed them and senior police.
"I felt proud while I was spending my time in custody. Because many journalists and human rights advocates came to support us. Our LGBTI friends also came there to give us some food and water. When my friends told me our friends had beaten in the same custody last month then I was scared," he tells GayNZ.com.
Mahato was not charged with any crime and has since been able to meet with Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, along with more than 20 LGBTI people.
"The meeting was about one hour with him," he says. "We addressed our problems with the Prime Minister and also asked why the Home Minister is stopping giving citizenship to third genders. We also addressed why we were arrested while we were waiting to Prime Minister and Home Minister."
Mahato is a sociology masters student and is planning to compete in the 5km run at the Wellington Outgames in March – but he is also very excited about attending the games' human rights conference.
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