Kathmandu, March 17
The Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons today published a list of 2,506 persons forcefully disappeared by both the warring parties during the armed conflict.
The list mentions name and surname of disappeared persons and the districts and the villages they belonged to.
According to the CIEDP, the names were complied and published on the basis of complaints on enforced disappearance filed with it.
Bardiya reported the highest cases of disappearance with 254, followed by Dang 128, Achham 54, Chitwan 51, Gorkha and Nuwakot 40 each, Rolpa 97 and Rukum 45. Those disappeared by both former CPN-Maoist Centre and state security agencies include people from almost all districts.
The list, however, doesn’t indicate who was disappeared by which party. The Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons has appealed to all people, civil society, political parties, human rights bodies, professional organisations, government agencies and national and international non-governmental organisations to provide it with any information and evidence they have about disappeared persons.
Since people were disappeared by the warring parties during the decade long Maoist insurgency the pressing issue has been to find the truth and facts to prosecute offenders and deliver justice to the victims. The CIEDP was established on 10 February 2015 to investigate into the cases related to disappeared persons. According to the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons, forced disappearance of people is a gross violation of human rights. The CIEDP will seek truth on the cases of enforced disappearance and recommend concerned authority for prosecution of perpetrators.
A version of this article appears in print on March 18, 2020 of The Himalayan Times.
