Democracy For Nepal: Madhu Acharya Of Asia Calling: The Need For A Truth Commission

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Madhu Acharya Of Asia Calling: The Need For A Truth Commission

NEPAL: The need for a Truth Commission [28-10-2006] It’s been an extraordinary six months in Nepal. There have been no violent clashes between the Maoist and the military. An end to the nearly decade long conflict is finally on the horizon. But while peace talks and discussion to elections of constituent assembly take place in the capital, in the rural areas where most of the killings took place, deep divisions and suffering remain. As in Timor Leste and Aceh, rights activist say a truth commission, where victims and perpetrators can met is the only way a truly lasting peace can come about. However as Madhu Acharya reports, that could be as difficult as the current political peace talks. For those who survived the atrocities and the relatives of those who lost lives of their loved ones, it is not easy to forget and forgive grieve.

Four years ago, in the middle of the night, Guiti Chaudhari’s, daughter Sita was abducted from her home at gun point by the Nepalese army.

"I asked them where are you taking my daughter. They told me to shut up. Later I heard from other people that a girl was crying and shouting for help. They said it was my daughter. I fainted after hearing that,"

Four days later she found her daughters underpants drenched in blood in her cow shed. The next day, the state control media reported that Sita was killed in battle. Guiti has never had justice.

"I remember her every moment. She is my daughter. I cry mainly in the evenings remembering her,"

In another part of the country Remni Mukhiya also cries when she sees the photo of her now dead daughter. She was killed in the crossfire when Maoist rebels attacked an army barrack near her house. Her daughter was pregnant at the time.

"Bullets came ringing through our ears. We all tried to hide behind the bench near the fireside. The Bullets should have killed me but they hit my daughter and she died instantly. You can still see the bullet holes in the walls and door. See this bucket. It has bullet holes,"

When I ask her what she wants to happen to those who killed her daughter, Remni stares into space. She is too lost in grief to think of revenge or forgiveness.

Elsewhere though, some victims and activists are boldly pushing the agenda of post-war reconciliation and forgiveness from both sides. Tirtharaj Basnet, lost his two brothers in Nepal’s civil war. They were Maoist activist. Tirtharaj believes a government army commander called Raju Basnet killed them with 47 other inmates. Yet he is ready to forgive him and is campaigning for other victims to do the same.

"We don’t need peace that is limited to the books or the constitution or by flying doves in the streets. I need peace which can make possible for me to co-exist with Raju, the man who killed my 2 brothers. To transform the conflict to peace it should be possible for me to hug and walk together with Raju and accept together that we both have to work for change. If we don’t do this there will never be peace in this country,"

Parmendra Bhagat, a Nepali democracy activist, wants a forum similar to the South African ‘Truth and Reconciliation commission’ established here: A place not to convict and jail people but a space where victims can tell their stories.

"You cannot imagine permanent peace without it. All the stories have to be heard. If those voices are not heard there might be small scale retaliatory attacks by grieving families two years from now even ten years from now. If you don’t heal this wound, you are looking at peace that is not permanent, that is not real and you are living a very volatile situation."

Right now though a reconciliation and truth commissions is not on the political agenda here. Many other issues still need to be worked out first in the peace talks between the Maoist and the government.

The anger and divisions in society are also very raw. When Maoist supreme commander Prachanda recently asked for forgiveness from the families of people killed in one of their bus ambushes he got this response.

"We want the person who bombed the bus to be handed over to us. Then after that we will bring them to our situation: hands, legs, chest bones broken and unable to work. We will make sure that he has to sleep for rest of his life. He needs to experience the same that he did to us. We will make sure that he will have more pain than us,"

The road to a peaceful and harmonious Nepal it appears remains long and difficult.

1 comment:

haisanlu said...: If the Truth and Reconcilation Commission follows the South African model then the idea might have some merit.

But if it follows the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation model it will just be a setback and resolve nothing; 4:31 AM

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Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Madhu Acharya Of Asia Calling: The Need For A Truth Commission

1 comment: