Kavre, August 5

Twenty-year-old Shital Tamang of Anekot VDC-9 dropped out of her school when she was in Grade XII, and her brother dropped out when he was in Grade IV after her father Chyadu Bahadur was murdered by then Maoist rebels on charges of espionage.

Five years later, their mother Maili killed herself.

“After my father’s murder, I had no option but to leave school because my family had no money. Now, I’m hunting for a job so that I can support my brother and sister who are staying at a kin’s,” said the twenty-year-old, who is wandering around Bhaktapur these days in search of a job.

In another case, Santoshi Timalsina of Milche-2 has been supporting her family by carrying milk cans in Banepa every morning, after her husband was murdered by rebels about 17 years ago. “I have managed to send my children to school, but I cannot buy them any new clothes, even when the ones they have are all torn,” she said.

Elsewhere, Man Kumari Ranjit of Banepa has been waiting for years to learn about the whereabouts of her husband Rajbhai. “They (the Maoists) say that they killed my husband, but I don’t know when, or where that happened,” she said, “I don’t know if I will ever know what really happened to my husband.” She accused the former rebels of neglecting her plight and many others like her.

It has been ten years since Sabitri Ghimire’s son of Ugratara disappeared without trace.

Dil Bahadur Khatri, who lost his eye and an arm in an explosion in Ugratara about 13 years ago, when he was just 12 years old, hasn’t received proper treatment. There are still nine shrapnel of the bomb in his body. Following the incident and the damage to his brain, he had to drop out of school.

Rama Koirala, a social worker who has been funding education for about a dozen kids of conflict victims from different districts in Kathmandu, said, “I don’t have any hope that these conflict-affected children will get the justice they deserve,” she said, adding that over half a dozen women have killed themselves after the difficulties they faced because of the conflict.

As per the data with INSEC, as many as 268 persons died, 20 disappeared, and 68 were handicapped in the district in the decade-long conflict. Similarly, another 213 families were displaced. Of the total 268 families, 10 have complained of not getting any sort of support from the government.

Ten years after the former rebels joined mainstream politics, the local peace committee has fyet to prepare an authentic data of the conflict victims.

“We are still investigating the actual number of conflict victims. We have, however, recommended many families who have been identified as victims for relief,” said committee coordinator and Rastriya Prajatantra Party district leader Tulku Lama.