Singh is implicated in the infamous Bhairabnath Battalion case in which 49 Maoist detainees where allegedly taken out of army barracks and subsequently killed in the Shivapuri jungles. Singh was commander of the 10th Brigade that controlled Bhairabnath Battalion when the alleged murders took place. Both the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) have urged action against all army officials who where in the chain of command at Bhairabnath Battalion at the time. Major Basnet, on the other hand, was indicted by Kavre District Court for his alleged role in the rape and subsequent murder of a teen-aged girl, Maina Sunar, in 2004. In its ruling last September the court had even asked the Nepal Army to suspend Basnet.
Sunar´s murder and the Bhairabnath disappearances are two of the three major cases (the third being the Doramba killings) of human rights violation involving Nepal Army personnel and these cases have always attracted due international attention. It is perhaps for this reason that the international community has rallied against Singh´s promotion and clamored for Basnet’s recall. While Basnet has been indicted by a court no charge sheet was ever formally filed against Singh. But it´s also true that Singh has not been cleared by a credible and transparent probe. Ideally, when a case of human rights violation as grave as the Bhairabnath killings occurs there should have been a full-fledged inquiry to bring to light what actually happened and who were responsible. But nothing of the sort took and no one knows the full truth. This, however, cannot be an excuse for exonerating officials who were in the chain of command of wrongdoing.
Basnet´s recall from the UN peacekeeping mission and denying promotion to Singh have now become test cases for the government, and how judiciously it handles each of these will reflect its commitment to human rights. The government should direct the Nepal Army to immediately recall Basnet and suspend him as per the court order, and also stall Singh´s promotion until an independent and transparent probe clears him. If the government does that, it will not only burnish it image but also create moral pressure on the Maoists to come clean on many charges of human rights violations pending against the formal rebels.
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