BAGLUNG, SEPTEMBER 23

Conflict victims speaking at a programme in Baglung district have said that the government had not been able to give them information about their missing ones or dead ones during the decade-long Maoist insurgency.

Stating that the march for justice for years had left them frail and almost on the verge of being broke, they said they felt hurt due to State's apathy towards their pain.

'We are long waiting for justice. The pain of losing the loved ones during the conflict is there. What hurts more is the unfair treatment of the State towards us. The State could not honour them who sacrificed their lives to protect the country and the people. Indifference towards the families of conflict-victims is unfortunate,' they said.

One among the conflict victims Sachidananda BK lamented that he was not served justice although he was fighting for the same for so long. 'When are we getting the justice? We are tired fighting for justice. Where are our missing relatives? How are they doing? There is no information about their whereabouts although years have passed by since their missing.'

According to him, the condition of the conflict-era victims was becoming delicate and miserable with each passing day and much to their dismay, no one is paying attention towards it. He blamed that the government could not offer any respite to the conflict victims which had further added to their woes.

'We have been struggling continuously since long for justice. Our situation is getting worse day by day. No one has paid attention to our plight. We have been knocking the doors for justice, but it has not been addressed yet,' said BK.

He expressed the view that the government should create environment conducive for livelihood of the victims. BK mentioned, 'It's been years since we lost our relatives.

No one reached out to us to know our situation. The government could have done something for supporting the livelihood of the victims, but nothing has been done so far.

The victim families have been facing lots of problems. The bodies concerned are not serious about it. We have no one to hear our pain.' We have been waiting for justice for so long. The government should clearly mention if it cannot address the matter of conflict victims, he said.

Similarly, conflict victim Jasodha Devi Sharma shared that they would continue their struggle until they got justice.

Although they had got different types of assurance in the past, they have yet to get justice, she added.

'In the past we were assured of justice from various quarters, but the reality is that we literally found no one by our side who believes our agenda is genuine and we deserve justice. Hope for justice has not vanished though. Our sufferings are overlooked. We continue to fight for justice until it is served,' the woman added..

As she said, only those who are forcefully separated from their family members could feel the pains of conflict victims.

She accuses the authorities concerned of disrespecting those killed and forcefully disappeared during the war and neglecting the voices of their families for justice.

She said, 'Those who were there to assure that we would be served justice now decline to attend our programmes. The State seems hapless in regard with our agenda.'

According to her, the conflict survivors in the district tried to make leaders of top political parties realise their situation, but they were apathetic.

A total of 149 people had lost their lives during the war in Baglung while 24 are in the list of forced disappeared. Two have been found.

The armed conflict started from 13 February 1996 and lasted till 21 November 2006, resulting in the deaths of over 17,000 people, including civilians, insurgents, and army and police personnel while thousands of people were internally displaced, mostly throughout rural Nepal. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has received about 63,000 complaints while the Commission for Investigation of Enforced Disappearances has received 3,000 complaints.

A version of this article appears in the print on September 24, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.