By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS,
Kathmandu : A leading human rights organisation in Nepal Thursday said India and other donors were fostering the culture of impunity in the country, preventing hundreds of atrocities committed during the Maoist insurgency, by both the state and the rebels, from being brought to justice.
Nepal’s Advocacy Forum, which – along with the London-based Human Rights Watch – has been fighting to get justice for the victims of torture, released a report documenting cases of extra-judicial killings and torture to pressure the new Maoist-led government of Nepal to investigate them and punish the perpetrators as well as thousands of other torture and enforced disappearance cases during the decade-old armed conflict.
The 112-page report “Waiting for justice: unpunished crimes from Nepal’s armed conflict” records 62 cases of killings, disappearances and torture between 2002 and 2006, of which most were committed by the then Royal Nepal Army (RNA).
Amid hundreds of crimes, one that rocked Nepal as well as the international community was the arrest of 15-year-old schoolgirl Maina Sunuwar by the RNA in 2004 in an attempt to intimidate her mother, who had witnessed the rape and killing of a teenager by soldiers, into silence.
Though the army steadfastly denied arresting Maina, four years later, after a pro-democracy movement, the human remains buried at an army camp were identified by DNA tests as the missing teen’s.
However, the court order for the arrest of the four army officers involved in the torture and slaying of the schoolgirl has not been obeyed even seven months later.
Though the army conducted an investigation after a public outcry, Maina’s mother Devi Sunuwar, who has been fighting to get justice for her dead daughter, dismisses it as mere formality.
“They were not even in jail,” she said. “In any case, being sentenced to jail for six months for the torture and killing of a minor is not just punishment.”
During the insurgency, the RNA was armed and trained by the Indian government.
“India has never asked for the culprits to be brought to justice,” said Mandira Sharma, executive director of Advocacy Forum.
“As India armed the RNA, possibly it fears it would be held accountable to some degree. This silence has been hampering our work for justice and is sheltering the guilty.”
Sharma says even the donors who have been providing assistance to provide “relief” for conflict victims should be held accountable for fostering impunity.
“The World Bank, for instance,” she says, “gave assistance for conflict victims. We have to see what it truly means. Is it a ploy to seal the lips of the complainants by paying them some money?”
Last month, Advocacy Forum together with the families of the victims petitioned President Ram Baran Yadav to open investigations into the cases.
Now they plan to meet the new peace and reconstruction minister, home minister and the army top brass.
Sharma says the Maoist government of former revolutionary Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” has to order investigations if he means what he says.
“The Maoists have been the ones to talk most about justice,” she says.
“They say they were compelled to take up arms for 10 years for justice.
“Now that they are leading the government, it is time for them to show they meant what they said.”