A statement posted in the website of the London-based rights body said the campaign has been launched because none of those responsible for horrific crimes, whether committed by the state or by members of the ruling Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) during the conflict period, have so far been brought to justice. “…victims continue to wait for justice and redress,” said the statement.AI said it documented killing, enforced disappearance and torture of thousands of civilians during the decade-long conflict and “these crimes and other human rights violations were committed by the army, the police and Maoist forces”.
“…the new government has been slow to implement its election commitments on these issues,” said the statement, while expressing fury over the government plan to give amnesty to about 350 Maoist cadres booked under serious crimes. “Furthermore, there are concerns that the measures it plans to take – which include providing amnesties to perpetrators - will reinforce rather than end impunity in Nepal.”
During the next 12 months, AI will issue a series of global actions to demand that the government of Nepal takes meaningful steps to ensure justice, truth and reparations for the victims.
AI has called on the government to establish an independent and effective disappearances commission to find out what happened to more than 1000 victims of enforced disappeared, to identify those responsible and to provide reparations to the victims (if they are found to be alive) and their families.
It has also urged the government to ensure justice, truth and reparations in three high profile cases, including the torture and killing of 15-year-old Maina Sunar by the armed forces in 2004, while calling on Nepal to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other cruel inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
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