Verdict for separate panel raises hopes
KATHMANDU, JAN 05 - Lawyers and victims’ families believe the landmark verdict of the Supreme Court on truth and reconciliation has foiled an insidious plan to whitewash the cases of disappearances.
The court on Thursday ordered the government to form a separate Commission on Enforced Disappearances (CED). The Commission on Investigation of Disappeared Persons, Truth and Reconciliation Ordinance 2013, endorsed by the President on March 14 last year, was a political deal made just before the Baburam Bhattarai-led government stepped down.
Breaching the constitutional provision and clauses in the Comprehensive Peace Accord, the four major parties agreed to merge two commissions into one, with objectionable clauses regarding reconciliation and amnesty.
“Parties agreed to drop the issue of disappearances to appease the security forces ahead of the Constituent Assembly election,” says Ram Kumar Bhandari, a petitioner from an alliance of insurgency victims—both from the state and the then CPN (Maoist)—that had jointly moved the court against the ordinance on March 24.
The Bhattarai-led government promoted Colonel Raju Basnet, an accused of disappearance in the notorious Bhairabnath battalion. “It is but a few instances of the government rewarding people involved in disappearances. If it is not the court, we would have nowhere to go,” says Bhandari. It has been 13 years since his father Tej Bahadur Bhandari disappeared.
At least 1,300 people have been recorded as disappeared in the 10-year-long insurgency.
Many families have even performed last rites of their kin considering their absence for over 12 years is enough reason to believe they are dead. The court verdict has raised hope for the victims that the incidents will be investigated and that those guilty will be persecuted. The SC has ordered the government to criminalise the cases of disappearances, which was missing in the Ordinance. Citing its 2007 verdict on the case of Rajendra Dhakal, who was disappeared by the then rebel Maoists in 1998, the apex court has asked the government form a separate Commission to look into the case of disappearances. “While the Disappearance Commission was to have been deemed purely related to dealing with criminal acts of disappearances, it has not been provided for accordingly in the Ordinance,” the full text of the verdict reads.
Advocate Govinda Bandi says the verdict is a reminder for political parties that they cannot do as they wish.
“It has shown that the government simply cannot bypass a court verdict in any pretext. It has also broken the supremacy of so-called the four-party alliance on major decisions,” Bandi said.
The SC bench presided by then Justice Khil Raj Regmi had passed the verdict on the Bhandari case. Kalyan Shrestha was the other judge. “It was the Regmi-led government that endorsed the Ordinance against the court verdict. I wonder why the judge that had set a standard in transitional justice ended up endorsing a fundamentally flawed ordinance,” he said.
The constitutional bench has corrected government’s wrong move. However, the doubt still remains on implementation of the verdict as the government took eight years to pass the Act to form the TRC. According to Bandi, the government has two options: revision in the current ordinance or work on two separate bills on Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Commission on Investigation of Disappearance tabled in the previous Constituent Assembly (CA).
“It is advisable for the government to form a team of experts as directed by the court and draft a new bill for the commission,” he said.
UN rights chief welcomes court ruling
Kathmandu: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has welcomed the Supreme Court verdict ruling out amnesties for serious human rights violations committed during the insurgency.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to block amnesties is the first step towards ensuring that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will not be used to avoid or delay criminal investigations and prosecutions of conflict-related cases,” she said in a statement on Saturday. “I now call on the Government of Nepal to urgently implement this important decision, in the spirit of working towards genuine and lasting peace, and to respect the demand of the Nepalese people for justice.” (PR)
The court on Thursday ordered the government to form a separate Commission on Enforced Disappearances (CED). The Commission on Investigation of Disappeared Persons, Truth and Reconciliation Ordinance 2013, endorsed by the President on March 14 last year, was a political deal made just before the Baburam Bhattarai-led government stepped down.
Breaching the constitutional provision and clauses in the Comprehensive Peace Accord, the four major parties agreed to merge two commissions into one, with objectionable clauses regarding reconciliation and amnesty.
“Parties agreed to drop the issue of disappearances to appease the security forces ahead of the Constituent Assembly election,” says Ram Kumar Bhandari, a petitioner from an alliance of insurgency victims—both from the state and the then CPN (Maoist)—that had jointly moved the court against the ordinance on March 24.
The Bhattarai-led government promoted Colonel Raju Basnet, an accused of disappearance in the notorious Bhairabnath battalion. “It is but a few instances of the government rewarding people involved in disappearances. If it is not the court, we would have nowhere to go,” says Bhandari. It has been 13 years since his father Tej Bahadur Bhandari disappeared.
At least 1,300 people have been recorded as disappeared in the 10-year-long insurgency.
Many families have even performed last rites of their kin considering their absence for over 12 years is enough reason to believe they are dead. The court verdict has raised hope for the victims that the incidents will be investigated and that those guilty will be persecuted. The SC has ordered the government to criminalise the cases of disappearances, which was missing in the Ordinance. Citing its 2007 verdict on the case of Rajendra Dhakal, who was disappeared by the then rebel Maoists in 1998, the apex court has asked the government form a separate Commission to look into the case of disappearances. “While the Disappearance Commission was to have been deemed purely related to dealing with criminal acts of disappearances, it has not been provided for accordingly in the Ordinance,” the full text of the verdict reads.
Advocate Govinda Bandi says the verdict is a reminder for political parties that they cannot do as they wish.
“It has shown that the government simply cannot bypass a court verdict in any pretext. It has also broken the supremacy of so-called the four-party alliance on major decisions,” Bandi said.
The SC bench presided by then Justice Khil Raj Regmi had passed the verdict on the Bhandari case. Kalyan Shrestha was the other judge. “It was the Regmi-led government that endorsed the Ordinance against the court verdict. I wonder why the judge that had set a standard in transitional justice ended up endorsing a fundamentally flawed ordinance,” he said.
The constitutional bench has corrected government’s wrong move. However, the doubt still remains on implementation of the verdict as the government took eight years to pass the Act to form the TRC. According to Bandi, the government has two options: revision in the current ordinance or work on two separate bills on Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Commission on Investigation of Disappearance tabled in the previous Constituent Assembly (CA).
“It is advisable for the government to form a team of experts as directed by the court and draft a new bill for the commission,” he said.
UN rights chief welcomes court ruling
Kathmandu: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has welcomed the Supreme Court verdict ruling out amnesties for serious human rights violations committed during the insurgency.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to block amnesties is the first step towards ensuring that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will not be used to avoid or delay criminal investigations and prosecutions of conflict-related cases,” she said in a statement on Saturday. “I now call on the Government of Nepal to urgently implement this important decision, in the spirit of working towards genuine and lasting peace, and to respect the demand of the Nepalese people for justice.” (PR)
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