MARCH 8

Two writ petitions were filed at the Supreme Court on Tuesday against CPN-Maoist chairman and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, seeking his arrest and punishment for admitting that he could be held accountable for the deaths of 5,000 people – not all the 17,000 – during the decade-long Maoist insurgency waged in 1996.

Advocate Gyanendra Aran and Kalyan Budhathoki and others, who are the family members of those killed by the Maoists during the conflict, filed the writ petitions four days after the division bench of the top court ordered the court's administration to register the writs, which were rejected previously.

The first hearing of the two writs is scheduled for Thursday when the lawmakers will be casting their votes to elect the country's third president.

In their writ petitions, they have said not owning up for the deaths of 5,000 people and other incidents such as hostage taking, rape, displacement, forceful eviction, enforced disappearances, maiming and putting people in concentration camps during the Maoist insurgency was ironical and against the rule of law. Referring to his 2020 public speech, the petitioners have also argued that Dahal's owning up for the deaths of the said number of people gave enough evidence to punish him. The petitioners had to lodge the case at the court after the Truth and Reconciliation Act-2014 took no action against those indulging in rights violations. With the writ petitions filed at the court, it cannot be referred to the commissions formed under the TRC Act.

Meanwhile, nine political parties, including the Nepali Congress, joined hands to defend Dahal, arguing that all the conflict-era cases should be handled under the TRC Act. But it has remained ineffective since its formation, and now the two commissions formed under it have no officials to look into the cases. The ruling coalition has now said the Act would be amended as per the Supreme Court's previous orders and international standard. Although it is too early to speculate in which direction the court proceedings would move, what is for sure is that Dahal's own confession has turned out to be the albatross around his neck. If Dahal, as supreme commander of the socalled People's War, is not punished for his confession to killing 5,000 people, it would give rise to impunity.

As the court has already accepted the writs from the conflict victims, it is its duty to take this case to a logical conclusion to the best satisfaction of the family members of the innocent victims who were killed in a brutal manner. As the top court has allowed the petitioners to lodge the writs, Prime Minister Dahal has no moral right to remain in office. He should step down immediately and pave the way for an impartial hearing of the cases, which have been pending for the last 17 years since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) on November 21, 2006. The CPA had vowed to conclude the cases of rights violations within six months from the signing of the accord that formally ended the armed conflict.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 9, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.