Jajarkot, June 10

Victims of the Maoist insurgency in Jajarkot have requested that the deadline to file complaints at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of the Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons be extended.

The victims said the deadline should be extended as they lacked required information and that the complaint registration centres were difficult to access in the remote villages.

TRC and CIEDP had appealed to civilians victimised by both the state and the insurgents to register their complaints from April 14 and 17 respectively this year. The victims can file complaints at local peace committees or can directly register the case at the commissions.

The deadline to file the cases at TRC is June 14, while the deadline for submission of complaints at CIEDP is June 21. Conflict victim Purna Prasad Sharam of Suwanauli VDC-4 said, “The deadline should be extended as people are not aware of the procedures to file their complaints.

Secretary of local peace committee in Jajarkot, Gyaneswor Acharya, said that of late, the number of people registering their cases had gone up, though the number was dismal in the first one month. “More than 25 people visit the office to submit their cases every day,” he added.

As many as 688 cases have been filed at the TRC, while only 22 cases have been registered at the Commission of the Investigation of the Disappeared.

Civil Society Jajarkot coordinator and local peace committee member Rajendra Bikram Shah said that the registered cases were far below the actual number of conflict victims.