During a meeting at Singha Durbar on Sunday, the Maoists, according to participants, pushed for general amnesty for most of the conflict-period serious human rights violations, except for cases of rape. [break]On the other hand, NC and UML argued that international norms and practices should be followed.
“At last, the Maoist Chairman [Pushpa Kamal Dahal] agreed to follow international norms while drafting the bill. We are against granting amnesty to those convicted of serious crimes against humanity,” said UML leader Shankar Pokharel who participated in the meeting.
UCPN (Maoist) and NC were at loggerheads over the definition of “serious crimes”. Pokharel said UML and NC are for categorizing instances of rape, murder of civilians, and enforced disappearances under “serious crimes” while the Maoists only want instances of rape to be listed under the category. The next three-party meeting will deliberate on the issue in detail.
At the meeting, the Maoists had emphasized on finalizing the bill on TRC. But NC and UML brought up the issue of PLA integration and criticized the Maoists for delaying the process. The Maoists then agreed to hold a meeting of the Special Committee on Tuesday and drive the process ahead.
“We will discuss the issue in our respective parties on Monday, hold a meeting of the Special Committee on Tuesday, and then hold a three-party meeting to asses progress,” said Maoist leader Posta Bahadur Bogati, adding that the PLA integration process will take a momentum soon.
But NC and UML leaders say they are not very much hopeful about the Maoists taking the integration process ahead.
“I feel the Maoists deliberately want to delay the process, though they have promised to advance the process after holding a meeting of the Special Committee,” said Pokharel.
NC leader Krishna Sitauala said the meeting ended on a positive note. “We have decided to sit again with the taskforce members [members of taskforce formed to finalize the TRC bill] and resolve differences on TRC and enforced disappearances,” said Sitaula.
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