Will hold serious talks with PM Oli, NC prez Deuba on TJ: Chairman Prachanda

By TRN Online, Kathmandu, Jan 8: Chairman of CPN (Maoist Center), the main opposition party in the parliament, and former Prime Minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', has said that he would hold a serious talks with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and president of Nepali Congress, the major ruling party, Sher Bahadur Deuba, to expedite process for transitional justice (TJ).

Leader Prachanda, one of the two signatories of the comprehensive peace accord (CPA), assured of transitional justice to families of the people made to disappear during the armed conflict popularly known as People's War while addressing a programme today.

In the programme entitled 'peace process and the question of making public the people made to disappear' held on the occasion of the 26^th remembering day of state-enforced disappeared fighter Rajendra Dhakal, the Maoist Center Chairman argued the delay in TJ was caused by a political attitude to use it as a weapon against the Maoists.

He said that two tendencies- one related to making TJ a type of business and the other related to making TJ an instrument to destroy the Maoist Party, have been obstructing the TJ.

"A kind of pressure needs to be created all the time so as to draw attention of the political leadership to this issue. There is a dangerous tendency to halt TJ and use it as a weapon to attack the Maoists. Those with such an attitude think once TJ is over, they will have no weapon to attack the Maoists, and this tendency has obstructed TJ," said Chairman Prachanda.

He attributed political reasons to pending of TJ. "I have always been focusing on concluding remaining works of peace process including TJ. As the PM, I tried the same. I formed a taskforce to finalise related Bill on consensus and this was achieved and then formed a recommendation committee involving representatives from major parties for office bearers of the related commissions. But, now I am out of power, and all the processes are in limbo," he said.

The then president of the Nepal Bar Association (NBA), Gorkha district chapter, Rajendra Dhakal was arrested on 8 January 1999 from Belchautari, Tanahu, by a team of Nepal Police while returning from a lawyers meeting in Tanahu district and then made to disappear. According to inmates who testified to a committee of the Supreme Court, Dhakal was kept in prison in Damauli before he was made to disappear.

According to ICRC, whereabouts of 1328 people made to disappear- of them over 1,000 by the state security forces and over 200 by the then rebel group Maoist- during the decade (1996-2006) long armed conflict are yet to be made public.

Two commissions related to TJ- truth and reconciliation commission (TRC) and commission on investigation of enforced disappeared persons were formed a decade ago to conclude TJ but both of them now have no office-bearers.

Agni Kharel, a leader of the ruling CPN (UML) and former minister, said the government was committed to ensuring TJ.

"When Rajendra Dhakal was Gorkha district president of NBA, I was general secretary in the center of NBA. His disappearance was shocking us all. As the NBA general secretary then I tried my best to force state to make his status public. As a legal professional, I have been involved in such cases for long now. But, we have not succeeded yet," he said.

The UML leader termed incompletion of TJ as a stigma on the country in international forums. "The government should conclude TJ and remove the stigma," said Kharel.

Govinda Bandi, another legal professional former law minister, expressed dismay over the way peace has not been able to address the wounds of the conflict and made it clear that legal justice cannot ensure TJ.

"Legal justice is just a tiny component of TJ. TJ is impossible by keeping LJ before it," he reasoned.

Gopal Krishna Ghimire, president of Nepal Bar Association (NBA), viewed that Nepal's international standing was undercut due to the pending of TJ.

Devi Khadka, a survivor of sexual violence during the conflict, said that trauma of the decade long conflict was now getting transferred to the third generation and this will create problems in the society if TJ gets further delayed.

Ek Raj Bhandari, a lawyer and a victim of enforced disappearance, argued that the government should take lead in concluding the CPA and ensuring TJ.

"If the people's war (PW) was a crime, why was CPA done then. It is regrettable the way attempts are being made to criminalise the historic rebellion that transformed the state," he said, adding, "Those who are trying to criminalise PW are bent on lingering TJ."

Dr Ram Kumar Bhandari, a conflict expert, urged all to avoid disruptive group from discourse of TJ as that group which claims itself to be mainstream of human rights has always worked to linger TJ so as to maintain their eminence.

Suman Adhikari, a conflict victim, blamed the state for adopting a delay, dilute and deny strategy with regard to justice to conflict victims and urged all to ensure justice to victim families.