Rukum, April 20

Sixty-five-year-old Pabitra BK seemed relieved when she entered the office of the local peace committee in Rukum today.

A conflict victim from Bhalakcha VDC-4, Rukum, she went to the office after hearing on the radio that complaints related to the insurgency were being collected.

“After I heard on the radio that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission for the Investigation of Enforced Disappearance of Persons were collecting complaints through the local peace committee office, I was happy and resolved to reach the office today itself,” said Pabitra.

“Though late, the government has finally started working in this regard. Now that I’ve filed my complaint, I know that I will get justice and get to see those person(s) who killed my innocent son being punished,” added the woman.

Pabitra’s son Obiram BK, then 20, had come to the district headquarters Musikot Khalanga for studies when police arrested and killed him taking him for a Maoist rebel on November 5, 1999. “Why shouldn’t I lodge the complaint? They charged my son falsely and killed him,” she said.

Committee secretary Raju Lamichhane ushered her to his office and helped her with the process of filing her complaint. “He comes in my dream almost every night and asks me to make a chautaro (resting place in the village) in his memory, which I’m definitely going to do,” said the bereaved mother.

Pabitra has a daughter who was widowed to the same conflict. “Besides my son, I had a daughter who was married and happy with her husband, but her happiness didn’t last long.

Her husband died in a battle between the security forces and Maoist insurgents in Salleri, Solukhumbu,” the woman recounted. “I had a happy family but the conflict shattered everything,” she lamented.

There are many others who are facing such plight. Now that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission for the

Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons have been formed, the victims are hopeful that truth and justice will prevail.

While collection of complaints related to the CIEDP began on April 14, collection of complaints related to TRC started from April 17. They are being collected through the local peace committee.