Incident Reports

Deliver or quit: Conflict victims’ ultimatum to CIEPD officials- Binodh Ghimire's Oped on Transitional Justice

2018-01-11

Nepal

Conflict victims have ratcheted up pressure on members of the Commission for Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP), asking them either to complete invesigations into the war-era cases on time or quit. The war-era victims, who had reached the CIEDP office on Wednesday to inquire about the progress made by the commission in its three years tenure, said they were not satisfied with the performance of the two transitional justice bodies which have not yet completed the final investigation into a single case. Representatives of the Conflict Victims Common Platform (CVCP), an association of 13 organisation working for the conflict victims, had reached the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on Tuesday to inquire about the progress being made since its formation in 2015. The victims from a decade-long Maoist insurgency are mounting pressure on the transitional bodies to expedite the investigation process to set the tone for completing probe into 63,000 cases within a year. The government on Friday decided to extend the term of the TRC and the CIEDP by a year. “Your sluggish work compels us to raise question over your competency,” said Dharma Bahadur Chaudary CVCP district chairperson from Kanchanpur. “There is no point in giving continuity to the commission if you can’t assure us to complete investigation in the extended period.” The victims vented their anger at commission members, saying that they had been defending their sluggish progress by passing the buck on the lack of resources and required laws, extreme situations like earthquake and non-cooperation of the political parties. “Had the commission completed investigation into a single case we would have some expectation from you,” said Chandra Kala Uprety from Banke, whose husband was disappeared by security forces. “I’ve been struggling for justice for the past 15 years. How long do you think we still have to wait?” They, however, said that they are ready to work together with the commissions in pressuring the government and parties for allocation of resources, deputation of staffs and for the required laws. In response, CIEDP Chair Lokendra Mallick said that they were serious about delivering justice to the victims at the earliest. “We have already set up the foundation. We can complete investigation in one year if the government clears the hurdles we are facing,” he said. The CIEDP, which had received 3,093 complaints, claimed that it had completed the preliminary investigation into all the cases and a detailed investigation was under way. “The detailed investigation into 207 cases is ongoing,” said Nripdwaj Niraula, secretary at the commission.

0 Comments