5 youths murdered by govt forces: Report

Home Ministry brushes aside document
POST REPORT

KATHMANDU, AUG 12 - 2011
An expert group assigned by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to look into the gruesome Dhanusha killings of 2003 has finalised its detailed investigation report confirming that the five individuals, who disappeared in October 2003 while in detention, died at the hands of the security forces.

The report, likely to be submitted to the NHRC this week, has concluded that Jitendra Jha (23), Sanjeev K Karna (25), Sailendra Yadav (18), Durgesh Lav (23) and Pramod N Mandal (19) were arrested, blindfolded, shot dead and buried on the banks of Kamala river in Godar, Dhanusha in October 2003. The report has held then SP Kuber Singh Rana (now AIG), SSP Chuda B Shrestha, the then head of Nepal Army Dharapani Barracks in Dhanusha, and then Dhanusha CDO Rewati Raman Kafle responsible for the killings. The officials are also named in the FIRs filed at District Police Office Dhanusha by victims' families in July 2006. The report has recommended starting a police probe, if needed, into the incident and initiating process to deliver speedy justice to the victims.

NHRC officials said once the expert panel tables the report it will be submitted to the PMO along with recommendations. “We will recommend the government for initiating a case against the responsible officials,” said NHRC member Gauri Pradhan, who leads the probe team.

The rights defenders have been keen to see how the government responds to the report. For when the expert team started exhumation in Dhanusha, the government had urged NHRC to stop investigation, stating “as per the Interim Constitution, only the proposed commission on disappearances could handle the conflict-related cases”. The Home Ministry had argued that it was beyond the jurisdiction of the existing judiciary to deal with wartime crimes.

However, NHRC ignored the government call and continued investigation stating that justice cannot be denied to the victims citing absence of transitional justice mechanisms (on disappearance and truth and reconciliation).

The report prepared after over a yearlong study with the support of OHCHR-Nepal gives a detailed description of how, where, when and under what circumstances the five were killed. The exhumation report has revealed that all the five persons had their hands tied and blindfolded before being shot. “The statements from the witnesses, the family members, circumstantial evidences and the matching of ante-mortem and post-mortem reports confirmed that the skeletons exhumed from the Kamala River banks were of the five individuals and they were killed at the hands of the security forces,” said an expert in the probe team. The report, however, will not include the DNA identification report to be sent shortly by the University of Helsinki (Finland) and National Forensic Laboratory of Nepal. NHRC had sent remains of the bones exhumed from the burial site for investigation to the labs.

Home Ministry officials said the report would not make any difference until the transitional mechanisms--TRC and Commission on Disappearances--are established. “The basic thing is that without establishing the proposed transitional justice mechanisms, there won't be much progress in addressing the conflict-related crimes,” said Home Ministry Spokesperson Sudhir Shah.

Two bills proposing the mechanisms are pending at the House. The Supreme Court, however, has made it clear that the government cannot defer probe and refuse to initiate court cases in conflict-related crimes even if they were committed for “political reasons”.


Posted on: 2011-08-13 09:33
http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2011/08/12/nation/5-youths-murdered-by--govt-forces-report/225112.html