Kathmandu: As the United Nations Secretary-General prepares to wrap up his Nepal trip, one after other representatives of the conflict victims have demanded that he should be paying attention to their plights. As many as five organizations of conflict victims drew the attention of Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday expressing displeasure for not meeting with them and heeding to their plights.
On Tuesday, Conflict Victims Policy Family (Dwanda Pidit Amar Prahari Pariwar), drew the attention of the UN chief toward their plight regretting “the omission of the victims of the prolonged conflict that occurred in Nepal two and a half decades ago from the Secretary-General’s visit schedule.” Issuing a statement, they reminded the UN chief that “a series of murderous acts were perpetrated in Nepal under the banner of the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) two and a half decades ago, resulting in the extrajudicial killing of thousands of innocent unarmed individuals.” They have also demanded that the UN should “unequivocally comprehend that thousands of innocent unarmed individuals lost their lives during the Maoist rebellion in Nepal, and that individuals associated with those killings are currently holding positions of Head of the Government and other major positions within the government.” “When individuals involved in acts of murder, looting, and terrorism hold positions within the government, the prospect of justice for the victims, their families, the injured, and the disabled appears to be an unattainable dream.”
In the letter they have requested the Secretary-General to make efforts to ensure that those responsible for extrajudicial killings are held accountable and brought to justice. “How can the peace process reach a satisfactory conclusion without addressing the concerns of the victims stemming from the original armed groups (Maoists) and facilitating their transformation from conflict to peace?”
In recent times, the conflict victims from security agencies such as Nepal Army and Nepal Police have been demanding that their plights and concerns should also be taken care of while making efforts to resolve the transitional justice issue of Nepal.
In September, Former Security Personnel Council of Nepal, an organization of the families of security personnel who were victims during the armed conflict in Nepal, wrote to the UN rapporteurs expressing reservations over the Bill to Amend the Commission on the Investigation of Disappeared Persons, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act. They had said that the proposed amendment on TRC Bill fails to address violations relating to security personnel who were killed brutally in unarmed and non-uniformed conditions, as well as the issue of child soldiers.
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