NEPAL: Pain of war continues
Updated
This Saturday marks one year since an important milestone in Nepal's peace process. The so-called Summit Talks were the first time Maoist chairman Prachanda appeared in public in the capital, to meet the Prime Minister and other political leaders. A comprehensive peace agreement was signed five months later. But for many families in Nepal, the pain of war continues.
Presenter: Liam Cochrane
Speakers: Sandra Beidas, chief of protection at the UNHCR; Colonel Dharma Baniya, deputy director of the army's human rights directorate; Ekraj Bhandari, a lawyer whose son disappeared five years ago
COCHRANE: Nepal's civil war began in 1996 but the violence dramatically increased after 2001 when the Nepal Army was brought it to support the struggling police force.
Over the next few years, hundreds of people were arrested and interrogated by the army and many remain missing to this day. The International Red Cross has a list of 937 people reportedly disappeared by the authorities, while the UN has documented around 500 cases.
Sandra Beidas is chief of protection at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and has seen the impact of disappearances on families.
BEIDAS: Obviously not knowing whether their loved ones are alive or dead, what happened to them, is just a constant anguish, and in a sense it's a form of mental torture. And especially sometimes when the authorities say they were killed in a confrontation when the families know very well that they were actually taken away to a military barracks and disappeared from the military barracks.
COCHRANE: The UN has made detailed investigations into several cases, including that of 49 people who reportedly disappeared from an army barracks in Kathmandu in late 2003. The case has become a high profile test of the army and government, yet despite the UN's report of imprisonment, torture and disappearances from the barracks, the UN says there's been an inadequate response from the military.
BEIDAS: We have been extremely disappointed in the lack of follow up. We know that there was an army task force that investigated the cases following the report but the army did not give us a copy. They have given us some information on what they say has happened to a very small number of those individuals and in a number of those cases we have actually seen that the information is inaccurate and we still consider the people to be disappeared.
COCHRANE: But in a rare interview with media, the Nepal Army has defended its efforts to stamp out human rights abuses within its ranks. Colonel Dharma Baniya is the deputy director of the army's human rights directorate. He admits that while the Nepal Army did commit violations when they first entered the conflict in 2001, they have since implemented a zero tolerance attitude to human rights abuses.
BANIYA: In 2001when army was mobilised initially, we had not educated knowledge, to be very frank, at that time we had committed some violations [in] 2001, 2002, 2003. After 2003 and 2004, it got down. 2005 we have got less than five, less than 10 allegations. In 2006 and 2007 we have committed zero violations. So this justifies how the Nepalese Army is, how serious we are to protect human rights - to protect and promote human rights and international humanitarian law.
COCHRANE: Colonel Baniya says the army has received 3,837 allegations of forced disappearances and has investigated 79% of them, which still leaves 783 cases pending. In many of these cases, he says, organisations such as the UN or Red Cross have not provided enough information to properly investigate.
However, efforts to clarify the fate of those who disappeared received a boost recently. Last week, Nepal's Supreme Court ruled that 83 people who are missing, were in fact taken by the security forces and ordered compensation to be paid to families. The Court also recommended the government form a high-level commission to investigate disappearances and punish those responsible.
Colonel Baniya says the Nepal Army will fully cooperate with the new commission and try to uphold its lucrative reputation as a source of troops for UN peacekeeping missions.
BANIYA: We do not want to defame our organisation by the name of one guy, ok. If he violates the human rights, if commits some serious violations, why should we save him by spoil our name, you see?
COCHRANE: The Supreme Court decision brought a small amount of relief for Ekraj Bhandari, a lawyer whose son disappeared five years ago. Bipin Bhandari was a member of a student union affiliated to the Maoist party. For years the army and government have been silent over the whereabouts of Mr Bhandari's son.
BHANDARI: But now Supreme Court has declared the government has captured Mr Bhandari and other people also, all people are disappeared by the government. It is a strong verdict by the Supreme Court. It is an established fact now the government has disappeared many people.
COCHRANE: That recognition has helped Ekraj Bhandari, who advises an association for families of the disappeared. As a staunchly anti-monarchy Maoist, he has no doubt who is most responsible for his son's disappearance.
BHANDARI: Most responsible is head of army. Army was guided by king, directly [by the] king. At that time, Prime Minister had no supreme power, at that time, the supreme power, the State power had [been given to the] king.
COCHRANE: With King Gyanendra effectively sidelined by last year's People's Movement, the responsibility to investigate falls on the interim government, led by Prime Minister G.P. Koirala. But with Nepal's transition to peace so fragile, it could be some time before the truth is known about those still missing.
The chances are, most of the people forcibly disappeared are already dead, but some may emerge alive from the secrecy. Until then, family members like Ekraj Bhandari can only wait and hope.
BHANDARI: Still now, he is alive or not? I don't know. My family, my wife and I, we don't know about him, where he is. Still now, he's alive or not - we don't know.
