Kathmandu, September 4 :

Human rights activists today called on the government and the Maoists to put an end to the culture of impunity by punishing the rights violators, warning that grave rights violations would occur if the rights violators were allowed to go scot-free.

The transfer of power does not guarantee that human rights violators will be brought to book, said human rights activist Sushil Pyakurel, and urged the government and the Maoists to punish the guilty and make the list of missing and those who have disappeared public. “We want to know whether missing individuals are dead or alive,” he said at a programme on Impunity and Present Government: Consultation Meeting.

Grave rights violations will occur if those who violated rights are not legally punished, said another human rights activist Gopal Krishna Sivakoti.

Pointing that no action had been taken against Dr Tulsi Giri, former first vice-chairman of king Gyanendra’s government, and former chief of the Army Pyar Jung Thapa, another rights activist Dr Sundar Mani Dixit said the authorities have failed to take action against perpetrators of grave rights violations.