NC DECIDES WEDNESDAY ON PEACE PROCESS AND STATE STRUCTURE

NC CENTRAL COMMITTEE TO MEET WEDNESDAY

Kathmandu, 7 Sept.: Main opposition NC central committee is meeting Wednesday to discuss how to conclude the peace process and constitution drafting.
A panel headed by three-time Prime Sher Bahadur Deuba has suggested integration of only 4,000 fighters.as Maoists want to integrate 7,000 of 19,000 former PLA fighters in state security agencies.
Maoists have declared only 3,200 weapons but they have 19,000mplus fighters at cantonments and satellite camps awaiting integration and resettlement.
The suggestion was presented to the central committee Tuesday.
A panel headed by Vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel has also presented its suggestion to the policy making body of the party.
The committee will decide whether to abandon its demand for a state reorganization commission as mentioned in an interim constitution to draw up a federal state structure to replace a unitary state.
Parties, other than NC, are suggesting a committee of experts to draw up new internal border of the country.
A suggestion has been made to amend the interim constitution to bring the committee of experts under the constituent assembly and not a sub-committee headed by MaoistCharman Prachanda to draw boundaries.
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MAOISTS BALK AT FORMING TRUTH COMMISSION
Kathmandu, 7 Sept.: Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai earlier this week expressed commitment to form the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Commission on Disappeared within a month, but it seems lawmakers of his own party are the impediment, Ananta Raj Luitel writes in The Himalayan Times

The bills related to TRC and CoD have been gathering dust at Parliament for the last two years due to Unified CPN-Maoist lawmakers’ unwillingness, a Nepali Congress lawmaker told The Himalayan Times. “The Maoist lawmakers want to hand clean chits to those involved in human rights violations during the decade-long conflict,” he said. “So, they don’t want to ensure the jurisdiction of TRC over investigation into past crimes. If TRC is sans jurisdiction over past crimes, there is no meaning of forming TRC.” The lawmaker argued that the Maoist lawmakers’ stance is against the universally accepted principle of human rights to ensure retrospective effect of humanitarian law and human rights violations.

TRC is related to investigation into human rights violations and return of seized properties to rightful owners and CoD is supposed to investigate and punish the security officials who were involved in disappearing persons during the armed conflict.

Prime Minister Bhattarai, while talking to senior bureaucrats today, expressed his ‘frustration’, saying he has been facing tremendous pressure regarding the decision to withdraw the wartime criminal cases. “Since it is related to the peace process and justice delivery, withdrawal of cases is going to be complicated,” a senior official quoted PM Bhattarai as saying.

Human rights activists have already expressed their concern about the delay in formation of TRC and CoD and a recent political decision to withdraw the criminal cases. The rights activists say such a political compromise will be unfortunate, and the country — at a time when it is floundering to complete the peace process — may face difficulty while handling transitional justice.

“(Wartime) Criminal and political cases must be differentiated through an independent commission,” says Commissioner at the National Human Rights Commission Gauri Pradhan, emphasising that the political parties should refrain from making political appointments while choosing members for TRC and CoD.

The two bills are under the consideration of the parliamentary Statutory Committee. Of late, a sub-committee under NC lawmaker Pushpa Bhushal has been formed to resolve the differences. While Maoist lawmakers are soft on CoD, they are bent on not letting the bill related to TRC move ahead, fearing that this will be against their interest. But Maoist lawmaker Ek Raj Bhandari accused NC and UML of obstructing the formation of both the commissions by demanding investigation into petty crimes through TRC.

The sub-committee led by Bhushal has, however, scheduled discussions on the two bills in September-end.
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BHUTAN RIGHTS LEADER RIZAL INTENSIFIES DRIVE AGAINST BHUTAN KING

Kathmandu, 7 Sept.: In a latest attempt to initiate legal process against the former king of Bhutan Jigme Singye Wangchukek, Tek Nath Rizal—human rights spokesman for Bhutanese exile residing in Nepal— has come up with a personal information form fill-up campaign for Bhutan lawsuit, The Himalayan Times reports.

Issuing the personal information form on Tuesday, Rizal writes, “In order to prepare this lawsuit we need as much accurate information as possible and we are attaching a blank form to be filled by all those that have been victims in the past or currently.”

According to the human rights spokesperson for Bhutanese exile, this personal information form fill-up campaign is an endeavor to turn it over to the appropriate law firm for action and to collectively make the decision to start the lawsuit.



The blank form seeks name of the person, address, current city, telephone, and last address in Bhutan, date of departure, date of departure from Bhutan, name of family members killed or imprisoned, among other details to be provided.

Earlier, Rizal, a former confidante of the Bhutanese king who was jailed for years in Thimphu had held discussion with the Washington DC-based Bruce Fein & Associates, Inc, a law firm in the United States, to explore lawsuits against former Bhutanese king Jigme Singye Wangchuk for torture meted out to thousands of victims.

Not less than 100,000 Nepali speaking Bhutanese citizens, known as Lhotsampas, were compelled to leave Bhutan due to state-imposed ethnic cleansing through the late 1980s to early 1990s during Jigme’s absolute rule. Seeking refuge, the majority of refugees had entered eastern Nepal through India.

More than 45,000 refugees have been resettled in eight first world countries, including the United States through the third country resettlement solution.
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