HR community bats for justice to Maina

KATHMANDU, Feb 16: National and international human rights community have jointly called on the government to prosecute those accused in the arrest and killing of Maina Sunar, a 15-year old school girl who was allegedly tortured to death during the conflict, on the eve of the seventh anniversary of Sunar´s killing.



They have also urged the Nepal Army, whose members are allegedly responsible for her death, to cooperate in the prosecution of the accused. [break]



Though Babi Khatri, Sunil Prasad Adhikari and Amit Pun, who were in the army at the time when the incident occurred, and serving Major Niranjan Basnet were implicated, none of them have been handed over to the police for criminal proceedings.



Sunar was allegedly tortured and killed inside the Birendra Peace Operations Training Centre in Panchkhal on 17 February 2004. In September 2007, the Supreme Court ordered that the case should be investigated and on 31 January 2008 criminal charges against the accused were filed at the Kavre District Court followed by arrest warrants for the four accused Nepal Army personnel. The orders have gone unimplemented.



“OHCHR notes that during Nepal´s recent Universal Periodic Review in Geneva, the government accepted a recommendation to ensure that “… all decisions from the judiciary, regarding those presumed responsible for serious human rights violations during and after conflict, are fully respected by all concerned institutional actors particularly by the army and the Nepal police”. It is the right time for the government to abide by this important commitment,” OHCHR, Nepal said in a statement.



Similarly, Nepal-based Advocacy Forum, London-based Amnesty International and New York-based Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists said in a joint statement, “That Maina´s family is still waiting for justice for her killing, as in so many cases of crimes during the armed conflict, suggests that the realization of victims´ right to a judicial remedy for serious crimes remains a distant dream in Nepal.”



“We have consistently pointed out that the failure to hold perpetrators accountable on both sides of the conflict drives the continuing culture of abuses,” said Mandira Sharma, executive director of Advocacy Forum. “There is a direct link between past impunity and continuing impunity, and there will be no movement forward as long as all sides continue to benefit from ignoring victim and justice issues.”

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