![[Nepal] Families of victims who disappeared at the hands of the state have arrived from their villages to the capital to pressurise the government to reveal the whereabouts of their relatives. [Date picture taken: 08/25/2006]](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/20068242.jpg.webp?itok=t1L04V7Z "Families of those who disappeared at the hands of the state have arrived to the capital to press the government to reveal the whereabouts of their relatives")
An estimated 5,000 Nepalese citizens have disappeared over the last decade of armed conflict following their arrests by the state-controlled security forces, the Society of the Family of Disappeared Citizens by the State, said on Thursday in the capital, Kathmandu.
Families of the disappeared arrived in the capital from various rural areas of the mountainous nation earlier this week. They have demanded that the whereabouts of the victims be made public and that the new interim government pressure the army and police to reveal the status of their loved ones, who disappeared after being arrested on charges of working as Maoist rebels.
For the last 10 years, the Maoists had been waging an armed rebellion against the Nepalese state. Two rounds of peace talks were held in 2001 and 2003 but failed, leading to an escalation in arbitrary arrests by the security forces and cases of disappearances at the hands of both the state and the Maoists, according to the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), which visited the Himalayan kingdom in 2004.
A third ceasefire was declared in April this year and peace talks started between the rebels and the interim government, formed by the seven national parties after leading a mass uprising to crush the authoritarian rule of the Nepalese monarch, King Gyanendra.
But even the new interim government has failed to put enough pressure on both the state army and the Maoists to reveal the status of those who disappeared, according to Advocacy Forum, a local activist NGO working to find justice against arbitrary arrests, illegal detention and extrajudicial killings.
Activists fear that many of the disappeared citizens were tortured and killed at the hands of both the security forces and the rebels. Advocacy Forum alone recording 500 cases of disappearances.
Meanwhile, many families have accepted that their relatives have already been killed, but want to know where they have been buried and whether justice will be carried out.
“I will never stop fighting for justice. We are not seeking revenge or huge compensation, but to find these perpetrators who murdered my daughter,” said Debi Sunwar, 50-year-old mother of Maina, who was killed by officials of the Nepalese army after she was heavily tortured following her arrest on alleged charges of being a Maoist rebel, according to Advocacy Forum. She was only 15 years old.
Her case has gained notoriety on both nationwide and international levels, with activists looking to see how the new democratic government and the United Nations, particularly its Office of the High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR), will help justice to prevail.
“Her case is also a test of the ability and the effectiveness of both our judiciary and the OHCHR’s,” prominent lawyer Mandira Sharma, who received death threats while she was advocating for justice during the king’s authoritarian regime, said.
Sharma hopes that the victims and their families will receive justice after the Nepalese state ratifies the new international treaty on disappearances, the Convention on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearance, which Advocacy Forum had also lobbied strongly for.
“We will not stop our struggle to pressurise the state to find out where all our loved ones are hidden. Our struggle will go on until justice prevails,” explained Bishnu Maya Rokka, whose husband disappeared three years ago following his arrest and detention by the Nepalese army.
Some 5,000 villagers are set to stage a huge rally in the capital on 3 September outside Nepal's parliament until the government offers an action plan to deal with the issue of disappeared citizens.
Meanwhile, local human rights groups and OHCHR have expressed serious concerns over a new army bill drafted for legislation, which according to them, would promote impunity and provide immunity to those state security officials involved in rights violations.
According to OHCHR, the “bill in its current form fails to comply fully with international human rights standards.”
It added that the bill stipulates that the Nepalese army would not have to cooperate with civilian authorities, like the police, to investigate military personnel who committed serious rights violations.
“It is essential that the security forces and the Maoists are held accountable for serious violations of human rights in order to re-establish the rule of law, to provide justice to the victims and their families and send a clear message that there will no longer be impunity in Nepal,” David Johnson, officer-in-charge of OHCHR Nepal, said.
NN/AJ/JL/DS
Families of the disappeared arrived in the capital from various rural areas of the mountainous nation earlier this week. They have demanded that the whereabouts of the victims be made public and that the new interim government pressure the army and police to reveal the status of their loved ones, who disappeared after being arrested on charges of working as Maoist rebels.
For the last 10 years, the Maoists had been waging an armed rebellion against the Nepalese state. Two rounds of peace talks were held in 2001 and 2003 but failed, leading to an escalation in arbitrary arrests by the security forces and cases of disappearances at the hands of both the state and the Maoists, according to the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), which visited the Himalayan kingdom in 2004.
A third ceasefire was declared in April this year and peace talks started between the rebels and the interim government, formed by the seven national parties after leading a mass uprising to crush the authoritarian rule of the Nepalese monarch, King Gyanendra.
But even the new interim government has failed to put enough pressure on both the state army and the Maoists to reveal the status of those who disappeared, according to Advocacy Forum, a local activist NGO working to find justice against arbitrary arrests, illegal detention and extrajudicial killings.
Activists fear that many of the disappeared citizens were tortured and killed at the hands of both the security forces and the rebels. Advocacy Forum alone recording 500 cases of disappearances.
Meanwhile, many families have accepted that their relatives have already been killed, but want to know where they have been buried and whether justice will be carried out.
“I will never stop fighting for justice. We are not seeking revenge or huge compensation, but to find these perpetrators who murdered my daughter,” said Debi Sunwar, 50-year-old mother of Maina, who was killed by officials of the Nepalese army after she was heavily tortured following her arrest on alleged charges of being a Maoist rebel, according to Advocacy Forum. She was only 15 years old.
Her case has gained notoriety on both nationwide and international levels, with activists looking to see how the new democratic government and the United Nations, particularly its Office of the High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR), will help justice to prevail.
“Her case is also a test of the ability and the effectiveness of both our judiciary and the OHCHR’s,” prominent lawyer Mandira Sharma, who received death threats while she was advocating for justice during the king’s authoritarian regime, said.
Sharma hopes that the victims and their families will receive justice after the Nepalese state ratifies the new international treaty on disappearances, the Convention on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearance, which Advocacy Forum had also lobbied strongly for.
“We will not stop our struggle to pressurise the state to find out where all our loved ones are hidden. Our struggle will go on until justice prevails,” explained Bishnu Maya Rokka, whose husband disappeared three years ago following his arrest and detention by the Nepalese army.
Some 5,000 villagers are set to stage a huge rally in the capital on 3 September outside Nepal's parliament until the government offers an action plan to deal with the issue of disappeared citizens.
Meanwhile, local human rights groups and OHCHR have expressed serious concerns over a new army bill drafted for legislation, which according to them, would promote impunity and provide immunity to those state security officials involved in rights violations.
According to OHCHR, the “bill in its current form fails to comply fully with international human rights standards.”
It added that the bill stipulates that the Nepalese army would not have to cooperate with civilian authorities, like the police, to investigate military personnel who committed serious rights violations.
“It is essential that the security forces and the Maoists are held accountable for serious violations of human rights in order to re-establish the rule of law, to provide justice to the victims and their families and send a clear message that there will no longer be impunity in Nepal,” David Johnson, officer-in-charge of OHCHR Nepal, said.
NN/AJ/JL/DS
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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