Kathmandu, Aug. 29
While the fate and whereabouts of hundreds of
people disappeared during the decade-long armed conflict has been established,
1,326 people in Nepal are still unaccounted for, almost fourteen years after
the end of the war.
"Over the years, families of 3,253 missing
people reported to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Nepal
and the Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS) the disappearance of their relatives,
often following their alleged arrest or capture by one of the parties to the
conflict, or during armed encounters," said the ICRC.
Issuing a statement on Saturday, on the
occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared (IDoD) it said that the
ICRC and the NRCS had been maintaining updated list of missing persons in Nepal
that is published annually since 2007.
This year's updated list of 1,326 people, who
are still missing in connection with the decade-long (1996-2006) internal
armed-conflict in Nepal. The details of the missing people will be available at
the websites of the ICRC from Monday.
August 30 is a day to commemorate the persons
who have gone missing in connection with, mainly, the armed conflict worldwide
and observed globally, said the ICRC.
The situation in the country is not so encouraging though as the
commissions for transitional justice – Truth and Reconciliation Commission and
Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons – have failed to
live up to the hope of the people and families of the missing.
Meanwhile, the government is yet to pass the drafted amendment
to the Transitional Justice Act. The draft has
the provisions mentioning reparation as a right of the victims, removal of
statute of limitation and creating a conducive environment for victims.
"The ICRC is advocating for a comprehensive
humanitarian mechanism as a part of the transitional justice process to address
the needs of conflict victims, including missing persons, by working with the
conflict victim associations and the government," said the ICRC.
According to it, the ICRC reinforces the
capacity of the conflict victim associations to engage with the government,
focusing on the missing, but within an all conflict victims approach.
In the meantime, the ICRC is advocating for a missing
(truth telling) mechanism with the government to ensure the right to know of
the family of the missing persons, it said.
"For families of missing persons, time
does not heal, answers do. The active search for missing loved ones can
continue for decades," it said.
The ICRC has suggested the government to
consider international humanitarian law as the set of law to be used for the
eventual ad hoc transitional justice judiciary.
"As the government is yet to pass the
amendment to the TJ Act, the ICRC is promoting the international humanitarian
law to the TJ commissions and to the government" said the ICRC.
In 2010, the ICRC initiated the comprehensive
psychosocial support programme namely 'Hateymalo (holding hand) Accompaniment
Programme' to mitigate the debilitating consequences of the uncertainty induced
by the disappearances at individual, family and social level and aimed to
restore the coping and resilient practices through mobilizing the resources
available at local and district level.
According to the humanitarian organisation, the
programme became a driving force to address the multifaceted needs of the
families and restore the wellbeing of individuals and families through
enhancing their functionality at individual, family and community level.
By the end of the programme in 2016, the
programme approached and benefited more than 90% of the families of the missing
persons (1,343 families) living in 43 districts of Nepal.
"We want the families of missing persons to
know that their loved ones are not forgotten, and they are not alone, and to
the authorities that it will continue supporting them to do everything in their
power to provide answers to the families, thereby upholding the families’ right
to know," said Robert Mardini, Director General of the ICRC.
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