"…It (human rights) remains the US top agenda. That was the main theme of my meetings [with political leaders and officials]," Moon said during an interaction with a group of journalists at the US embassy on Wednesday. [break]
Moon arrived in Kathmandu on Sunday for a four-day official visit and left for Washington Wednesday. He had met political leaders, officials and the army chief to take stock of the ongoing peace process and the political situation, and discussed human rights issues.
In all his meetings, Moon said, he conveyed US concerns over human rights issues and urged political parties to act to address impunity.
"We want to see the government of Nepal and the Maoists seriously address these human rights issues. I think Nepali people need that and we hope that the process [of addressing] can move forward," Moon said, replying to queries by journalists.
He stressed that conflict-related impunity should be addressed because it is partly related to the peace process and partly to the healing process for Nepal. "How it should be done is up to the people of Nepal."
When asked about how the promotion of Major General Toran Jung Bahadur Singh and the army´s refusal to hand over Major Niranjan Basnet would affect US relations and assistance to the Nepal Army, he said, "We do want to see full investigation and hearing of the charges of human rights abuses, including the cases you mentioned. And that would be important to the US government, to its policy toward Nepal."
The government had promoted Singh in December, ignoring calls from the national and international human rights community not to elevate him until charges against him were investigated in a credible way. Similarly, the army has continued its refusal to hand over Major Basnet to police for investigation in a conflict-related murder case since his repatriation from the UN peacekeeping mission in Chad.
When asked about his assessment of the peace process, Moon said he was impressed by the commitment of political party leaders whom he met to the peace process and to completing the constitution-drafting process within the set timeframe.
He hoped that the recently-formed High Level Political Mechanism could be a very useful tool to bring all of the parties together and reach an agreement on some of the difficult issues that must be decided.
"There is a very serious attitude among all the government officials and party leaders in making progress…" he said, adding, "I am impressed by the seriousness in making progress."
Earlier, giving his statement before the interaction, he said that he talked about the steps that the Maoists should take to see them taken off the US terrorist list.
"We would like to see Maoists take the steps, including renouncing of the use of violence and terrorism, holding accountable those who committed gross human rights violations, working actively with other parties to support the peace process. We want to see the Young Communist League, like other youth organizations, abandon violence and criminal activities. We hope to continue the dialogue," Moon said about his meeting with Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
He further said that Dahal indicated his intention to engage seriously in the peace process.
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