KALIKOT, Aug 31: Families of those who were made to disappear during the decade-long Maoist insurgency have said that the government has ignored their plight. During the conflict era, altogether 28 people from the district were made to disappear by the state and the Maoists, according to the records maintained at the District Administrative Office (DAO). But records at the district chapter of the Nepal Red Cross Society shows only 18 were disappeared.Even after years of the comprehensive peace agreement, the whereabouts of those disappeared remains unknown. Even the cases filed at the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEPD) have yet to be settled.
The commission has claimed that the government is deliberately ignoring the cases because many high-ranking officials of the district were responsible for the disappearances.
Compensated as dead, now re-registered as disappeared
Relatives of the victims complained that CIEPD has been rendered helpless by the government. Lack of reliable law, budget and skilled human resources are all contributing to the ineffectiveness of the CIEPD.
Supari Luwar of Sanni Tribeni Rural Municipality-6 in the district is among those relentlessly pursuing her quest for the truth behind the disappearance of her kin. Her husband Rame was arrested by Nepal Army soldiers during the conflict era and remains missing to this day. It has already been 15 years.
“Either the Nepal Army should return him alive, or at least provide me the remains if he is already dead. We are in deep pain for years and inaction by the government has added salt to our injury,” said Supari.
Likewise, the rebel side had taken Tej Bahadur Shahi of Raskot Municipality, then local of Bijayapur in Syuna Village Development Committee-5. He was then the VDC's secretary and was taken away for 'questioning' on March 26, 2000. He too has not returned home.
Nepal Red Cross Society organized a function on the occasion of the 'International Day of the Disappeared' on Thursday. Relatives of the victims who attended the function urged the government to act with urgency to disclose the whereabouts of their loved ones.
