A team of national and international forensic experts are to carry out the exhumation. [break]
"The experts team is scheduled to fly to Janakpur Sunday and the exhumation will be carried out the same day if all arrangements are completed. Otherwise, the exhumation will take place Monday," NHRC member Gauri Pradhan, who is leading the exhumation, told myrepublica.com on Friday.
Security personnel on October 8, 2003 arrested 11 youths including Sanjiv Labh, Durgesh Labh, Jitendra Jha aka Machhali, Pramod Narayan Mandal and Shailendra Yadav from a get-together they had organized at a house at Kataiya Chauri of Janakpur Municipality-4.
Eyewitnesses said the security personnel comprising army, police and plain-clothes personnel arrested the youths and later brought them to Janakpur Zonal Police Office.
NHRC´s bid to unearth the bodies became possible only after a meeting between commission members and a high-level government team headed by Home Minister Bhim Rawal reached an understanding to take the process ahead. Earlier, the government had requested the national human rights watch dog to put the plan on hold for the time being.
- International forensic experts in town, national experts to join team
- Govt team headed by home minister okays plan after talks with NHRC
Rawal, leading a team comprising Home Secretary Govinda Kusum, IGP Ramesh Chand, Chief Secretary Madhav Ghimire, Law Secretary Madhav Poudel and secretary at the prime minister´s office Dr Trilochan Uprety, who works as focal point for human rights, reached the NHRC office at Pulchowk Friday afternoon to discuss the matter.
A government team requested the NHRC commissioners to put the plan on hold for the time being, given the sensitivity of the case. "They were of the view that since the current situation is sensitive, this might not be the right time. But finally we reached an understanding to take the process ahead," Pradhan said.
Two Finnish forensic experts including Helena Ranta of the University of Helsinki have already arrived in Kathmandu. A group of national forensic experts from Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, the National Forensic Lab and experts and representatives from NHRC is ready to leave for Janakpur.
Ranta is one of the experts involved in the exhumation of mass graves in the Shivapuri forest in December 2008.
NHRC officials said some members from the national team will leave for Janakpur on Saturday for preparatory work at the site while others will reach there by Sunday.
NHRC and other human rights organizations have been pressing the government to allow experts to exhume the graves as the youths´ families have demanded confirmation whether the bodies supposed to have been buried along the local Kamala River bank are those of their kin. "They want to perform the funeral rites if the bodies are identified as their kin," he said.
However, given past experience, NHRC members are still not sure if security officials on the ground will extend their support at the site. "The case of Shivapuri, where security personnel didn´t cooperate despite instructions from the center, is still afresh in our memory. Let´s see what happens at the site this time," he said.
One of the secretaries present at Friday´s meeting said the government has given a go-ahead for the exhumation. "The government will extend full cooperation to the team," he said.
NHRC Chairman Kedarnath Upadhyaya had to complain to Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal in writing three days ago about non-cooperation from government agencies.
A source at the PMO said the prime minister held a discussion with some secretaries over the matter on Friday before the team led by the minister reached the office of the commission.
According to Pradhan, commission members were frustrated by the government response as late as Friday morning. He even requested the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on International Relations and Human Rights, Padam Lal Bishwakarma, to direct the government to cooperate with the commission.
During the insurgency period when the youths were made disappear, the security agencies initially claimed that they had not arrested them. Later, they conceded the arrests. The river bank areas where the bodies are suspected to be buried have been fenced off for the last two years.
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