KATHMANDU, Jan 12: The US Ambassador to Nepal Dean R Thompson has said that the international community is keenly interested to see Nepal’s transitional justice process moving forward to address the concerns of the victims.
Ambassador Thompson said that they feel strongly that the process of transitional justice should be led and run by Nepalis and is victim-centric and should take into account the concerns of all the victims and victims’ groups. “This is definitely something that I talk about with my colleagues in the international community. It is still very much on everyone’s mind and still keenly interested in. I hope we can see progress,” he said, while expressing confidence that the new parliament will take up the bills related to transitional justice and resolve the issues of transitional justice.
Responding to the queries of journalists on the position of the US government on the transitional justice process that has been prolonged for decades, Ambassador Thompson said the issue has not been raised seriously in recent months due to the political matters happening in Nepal. “We certainly remain interested in seeing it move forward. I know you have heard us say in the past we feel strongly that it should be Nepali-run and Nepali-led process that is victim centric that takes into account the concerns of all the victims and victims’ groups,” he further said.
Ambassador Thompson also dismissed the suggestions that the US and the western countries had remained silent on the issue of transitional justice in Nepal. “I don’t think it is our intent. I think I would say probably because of the political season we’ve been in. People are focused on a lot of other issues,” he clarified.
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The US envoy also made it clear that the US does not want to get involved in the transitional justice process in Nepal but wants to see it taken to a logical conclusion by ensuring justice to the victims. “…we never get involved in the process like that. There are challenges; there are different perspectives; there are a lot of things that have happened,” he said. “We will continue to encourage all the various players to move forward and find a way to come together and be successful on it. As we are going to see a new parliamentary session, I hope we will see the bill taken up again and move forward,” he further said.
The victims of Maoist insurgency are worried if they will ever get justice after the terms of transitional justice bodies formed earlier by the government expired on October 17, 2022. The erstwhile government-led by Sher Bahadur Deuba had extended the term of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) by three months, hoping that the bill to amend the Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons and Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act 2014 would be endorsed by the federal parliament.
But the term of the parliament expired on September 20 before it could endorse the bill, prompting strong objections from the victims, human rights activists and organizations working for the cause of transitional justice in Nepal.
In addition to bringing revisions in several key provisions of the Act, the bill sought to extend the terms of these two transitional bodies yet again by two years. It is not yet clear what the new government-led CPN (Maoist Center) will do to ensure transitional justice to the victims of the armed conflict it launched for a decade between 1996 to 2006.
On the occasion, Ambassador Thompson said that he looks forward to working with the Government of Nepal to further strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries on solid foundations. While mentioning that a number of exciting initiatives including MCC are currently underway in Nepal, he said that the US government hopes to continue its engagement on the government side, non-government side and people-to-people side in the days ahead.
