Kathmandu, June 15

Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Surya Kiran Gurung said the TRC would take a call tomorrow on the extension of deadline for filing complaints against war era crimes.

Talking to THT, Gurung said the TRC had received reports from districts about the victims seeking an extension of deadline.

“I personally believe that the deadline should be extended but this is a matter of commission’s collective decision,” Gurung added.

Gurung said the TRC would start comprehensive investigation into complaints once preliminary investigation was over.

He said the TRC had already prepared first draft of directives that would guide investigation but since it needed to be in conformity with provisions of Istanbul Protocol, the transitional mechanism was reviewing the first draft of the directives with a view to   ensuring that the directives were on the lines of Istanbul Protocol.

“If the provisions of directives fail to conform to the provisions of Istanbul Protocol, our investigation cannot get international recognition,” Gurung said and added that the transitional mechanism would finalise the directives in 7 to 10 days.

He said the preliminary investigation would sort out many things as to whether or not a particular case was related to conflict and what type of crime or atrocities were committed.

“Preliminary investigation will help us determine the type of crime and atrocities. We will be able to categorise cases such as grave injuries, rape, extra judicial killing, murder, displacement and so on,” he added.

He said the TRC would need all the legal frameworks ready before it launched comprehensive investigation into the cases.

Once the transitional mechanism completes preliminary investigation into the complaints, it will decide how many comprehensive investigations it needed to carry out.

TRC member Madhavi Bhatta said preliminary investigation would help TRC decide whether or not particular cases were under its jurisdiction. “We will also decide which cases need public hearing and which cases can be recommended for reconciliation,” Bhatta added.

Gurung added that the government would have to make amendment to TRC Act and other relevant laws as per the Supreme Court’s verdict before the TRC could proceed with comprehensive investigation.

The TRC Chair said his office had already informed the government what needed to be done to prepare legal framework for carrying out investigation into the war era crimes. “Statute of limitation for filing rape case should be extended to enable the rape victims get justice.

Similarly, torture should be criminalised and serious crime and offences of serious nature need to be defined clearly,” Gurung said.

Chairperson of Conflict Victims Common Platform Suman Adhikari said the TRC had not properly sensitised the victims about the process of lodging complaints. “There are many victims’ who think that lodging complaints this time is no different from past occasions when case details were collected for other purposes, including for providing relief money,” Adhikari said and added that the TRC should have made the complaint forms available in all the VDCs.

Bhatta said the TRC would prepare a roster of experts who would help the transitional justice mechanism with the investigation works.

Meanwhile, TRC has so far received 33,592 complaints.

The transitional mechanism received 2,848 complaints today, a day before the deadline for lodging complaints.

Bhatta said the TRC had distributed 40,000 forms to the victims but all the people who had received forms had not lodged complaints.