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Resources
Waiting for Justice. Unpunished Crimes from Nepal’s Armed Conflict view details>>
UNWGEID Mission to Nepal. view details>>
Enforced disappearances Nepal
| Numbers and Context |
|---|
| UNWGEID Cases |
| 531 disappearances have been denounced, from which 211 have been clarified and 320 remain outstanding. |
| NGOs Numbers |
| Different NGOs report over 1,200 people are disappeared as result of the conflict between Nepal's Maoist insurgency and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [CPN-M] against the Kathmandu Government, which lasted a decade. Biggest number of victims come from the district of Bardiya and they belonged to marginalised groups like indigenous people and lower castes. |
| Context |
| Disappearances during Nepal’s Maoist insurgency
Nepal’s Maoist insurgency began in February 1996 when the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [CPN-M] declared a “People’s War” against the Kathmandu based Government by attacking a police post in the rural Mid-West of the country. The origins of the conflict lay in the extreme poverty, and ethnic and caste based marginalisation that had persisted despite the first democratic elections in 1990. The war persisted for a decade, ending only following a “People’s Movement” in April 2006 that returned power to Parliament following the seizure of power by the king. Since then the country has been engaged in a peace process whose climax was elections in April 2008 from which the CPN-M emerged as the largest single party. One of the major impacts of the war was the phenomenon of disappearances. Whilst the CPN-M was responsible for both killings and abductions during the conflict, the forces of the state perpetrated the majority of enforced disappearances. Initially the state responded to the rebellion as a law and order issue, using the modestly armed police force to combat the Maoists. As support for the insurgency grew, and the Maoist People’s Liberation Army was able to bring significant numbers of troops to bear in the field, the state created a paramilitary Armed Police Force, to enable heavier weapons to be used. The Maoist forces themselves decided to bring the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) into the conflict, through an audacious attack on a barracks in Dang, in the Midwestern plains, in 2001. For much of the conflict, the Maoists had control of rural areas, comprising up to 80% of the country, while the Government retained control of the headquarters of each of Nepal’s 75 districts, where administration and security forces were based. Whilst disappearances began at the earliest stage of the conflict, perpetrated by the Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force, the RNA’s involvement significantly increased both total casualties in the conflict and the number of enforced disappearances. From 2001, following the engagement of the RNA and the declaration of a state of emergency, violations of the laws of armed conflict by the state were seen to have increased dramatically, according to human rights agencies. Figures from agencies investigating disappearances report a total of more than 1200 persons still unaccounted for as a result of the conflict. Disappearances by the state occurred throughout the country, in both the rural heartlands of the Maoists, notably in the Mid West, as well as in the capital Kathmandu. The worst affected district, Bardiya, in the plains of the Mid West, accounts for 20% of all disappearances, a total of some 240 individuals. The typical scenario involved the security forces passing through rural areas in strength, very often at night. Patrols would stop in villages and often accompanied by hooded informers from local communities, would read out names of persons to be arrested and take people away. Those arrested in this way included children as young as 14, and many of those arrested appear to have had no connection to the Maoists. In the case of Bardiya, those arrested were often taken to one of two military barracks where survivors report detainees were removed in jeeps at night that then returned empty. One characteristic of the phenomenon of disappearance is that, as with other types of victim, marginalised groups, such as indigenous people and lower castes, were disproportionately affected. In Bardiya a substantial majority of victims are from the indigenous Tharu ethnicity. In Kathmandu activists known, or assumed to be, associated with the CPN-M were arrested from their homes or on the street. In the most well known case, investigated by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 49 persons were held in secret in a RNA barrack in the center of Kathmandu and then removed at night and taken to a destination in the forest north of the city. Knowledge of the fate of these 49, the hundreds disappeared in Bardiya and the others missing has been consistently denied by all branches of the security forces. In the two years since the end of the conflict, the families of the disappeared have waited in vain for their relatives to return. For the families of those missing the war is not over, as they continue to wait for an answer as to the fate of their loved ones. Needs of the families are manifold: in rural areas many families have lost their principal breadwinner, since most of those disappeared were younger men, and face challenges to feed children and send them to school. Families demand that the state reveals the truth about what has happened to the disappeared and await justice. Since the end of the war, the peace process has moved slowly, with an interim Government failing to take any action to address the issue of disappearances despite numerous assurances in the Peace Agreement and various understandings made with the CPN-M. In June 2007, the Supreme Court ruled on 83 cases of disappearance brought before it on grounds of habeas corpus: the court ruled that the fate of all should be investigated and that families should be paid compensation; no action has yet been taken. Following the elections of April 2008 a Government will be formed that will have to take the process forward. The commitments made include the creation of a Commission of Enquiry into Disappearances, and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Whilst no public draft proposal for the Disappearance Commission has been made, the interim Government has drafted a Bill for the creation of a TRC. This has however disappointed many engaged with the issue of disappearances since it includes proposals for a broad amnesty for perpetrators of violations. The new Government will have to address the concerns of both the families of the disappeared and the Nepali and international Human Rights community in proposing transitional justice mechanisms that both address the immediate needs of the families of the disappeared and end the traditional impunity enjoyed by the forces of the state. This summary has been written by: Simon Robins PhD candidate Post War Reconstruction and Development Unit University of York www.simonrobins.com |
| Federations and Organisations | |
|---|---|
| Organisation | Advocacy Forum-Nepal (AF) |
| Website | www.advocacyforum.org |
| Contact | Baluwatar, Kathmandu. P.O. Box. 21798 Tel: +977-1-4430951, 4417397 Fax: 0977-1-4437440 e-mail: msharma(at)advocacyforum.org.np mandira2001np(at)yahoo.com (Mandira Sharma) |
| Focus | Leading Nepali Human Rights org. that mobilises victims through the creation of victims'groups in many districts. Advocady Forum are initiating legal action in support of the families of the disappeared. |
| Member of | Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) |
| Organisation | Family Associations |
| Website | |
| Contact | On request (email: info@enforceddisappearances.org) |
| Focus | A number of associations formed in affected districts of Nepal, including: Conflict Victims Committee (CVC) Bardiya, Center for Social Justice, Lamjung and the Society for Families fo those disappeared by the state (SOFAD) in Kathmandu |
| Organisation | Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC) |
| Website | www.insendline.org |
| Contact | Central Office - Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC) Syuchatar, Kalanki, Kathmandu, Nepal G.P.O. Box: 2726, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel.: +977-1-4278770 Fax: +977-1-4 270551 E-mail:insec@insec.org.np Website: www.inseconline.org Eastern Regional Office - Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC) Janpathtole, Biratnagar-15 Morang, Nepal Tel: +977-21-524025, 977-21-528127 Fax: +977-21-528521 Email: biratnagar@insec.org.np Mid Regional Office - Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC) Syuchatar,Kalanki Kathmandu,Nepal Tel: 977-1- 4285461 Fax: 977-1-4672475 Email: kathmandu@insec.org.np Western Regional Office - Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC) AnnapurnaTole, Pokhara-7 House NO. 106-2 Kaski, Nepal Tel: 977-61-526512, 977-61-533709 Fax: 977-61-533792 Email: pokhara@insec.org.np Mid-Western Regional Office - Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC) National Trading Road, Nepalgunj Banke, Nepal Tel:+977-81-524504, +977-81-522068 Fax: +977-81-526949 Email: nepalgunj@insec.org.np Far Western Regional Office - Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC) Uttarbehadi,Ratopul,Dhangadi-4 Kailali, Nepal Tel: +977-91-522576,091-521446 Fax: +977-91-523244 Email: dhangadi@insec.org.np |
| Focus | NGO working through the war throughout Nepal to track violations by both parties to the conflict. INSEC has kept comprehensive statistics of violations |
| Organisation | International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) |
| Website | http://www.ictj.org/en/where/region3/1684.html |
| Contact | Nepal Office GPO 8975 EPC 2125 Jhamsikhel, Lalitpur, Nepal Tel: +977 9803548473 |
| Focus | ICTJ opened their offices in Kathmandu in 2007 |
| Organisation | Office or the High commissioner for Human Rights, Nepal |
| Website | http://nepal.ohchr.org/en/index.html |
| Contact | Head Office Kathmandu Museum Road, Chhauni, G.P.O. Box 24555, Kathmandu Telephone: +977 1 4280164, 4280326, 4280542 Fax: +977 1 4670712, 4670713, 4671256 (security) registry.np@ohchr.org Field Office Central Region Museum Road, Chhauni, G.P.O. Box 24555, Kathmandu Telephone: +977 1 4280164 Fax: +977 1 4670712, 4670713 Email: registry.ktm.np@ohchr.org Sub-Office Central Region Manaki Hotel, Janakpur Telephone: +977 (041)527552, 527551, 527550 Email: registry.ktm.np@ohchr.org Field Office Eastern Region Binayak Road, Tintolia-14, Block no. 18, Biratnagar Telephone: +977 (021) 534124, 534125 Fax: +977 (021) 534126 Email: registry.btn.np@ohchr.org Field Office Western Region Khahari Path, Lake side, P.O. box 160 Telephone: +977 (061) 551155 Fax : +977 (061) 551154 registry.pok.np@ohchr.org Field Office Mid-Western Region Kaushalya marg, Ward no. 16, Nepalgunj Tlph: +977 (081)521989,524336,523928,523930 Fax: +977 (081) 524337 registry.npj.np@ohchr.org Field Office Far-Western Region Hasanpur-5, Dhangadhi Municipality, Kailali Telephone: +(091)-521621, 523503 registry.dgd.np@ohchr.org |
| Focus | OHCHR set their offices in Nepal in 2005 and is currently working to support the Government Transitional Justice efforts |