The second point of the agreement reads: "All the court cases against those involved in the Maoist insurgency, Madhes movement, Janjati movement, Tharuhat movement… will be dropped and they will be given general amnesty." If the Maoists and the Madhesi Front were under the impression that they can get by without courting controversy by including this point in the agreement, they made a fundamental error of judgment that they must have realized by now. The right to grant amnesty rests only with the victims—no one else.
Amnesty to those charged of crimes conducted during an insurgency or a movement, though, is not something that does not happen at all. But it has to happen through a formal channel with consent from the victims. Hence the requirement for bodies such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Disappearances Commission. But the bills to institute these transitional justice institutions have been gathering dust at the legislature-parliament. The Maoists and the UDMF would do well to focus on getting them passed in parliament rather than trying to justify the agreement that completely ignores the pains and the pangs of the victims and the near and dear ones of the victims in the case of those who lost their lives.
The international human rights bodies have rightly decried the Maoist-UDMF deal. In defense, PM Bhattarai Friday said that the deal is being misinterpreted as the “decision was made to acquit only those implicated by the state on fake charges during the People’s War, and Madhes, Tharuhat and other movements.” If that is indeed the case, the PM still has a convincing answer to provide: How does his government plan to identify those “implicated… on fake charges” from the real perpetrators? People have a lot of expectations from PM Bhattarai. We hope that he will not give his well-wishers a reason to be dejected with him even before the euphoria over him being elected as the PM has subsided.
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