Conflict victims to narrate their sufferings to public

Kathmandu, November 30

Anguished over snail-paced  transitional justice process, Conflict Victims Common Platform has  decided to organise programmes in Siraha, Kaski and Kailali districts to enable the conflict victims to narrate their sufferings to the public.

Issuing a press release, CVCP said the conflict victims had not yet had the chance to share their tales of sufferings. It plans to hold the programme in Lahan on December 3, in Pokhara on December 17 and in Kailali on December 12 in collaboration with Human Rights Journalists Association to provide the victims platform to share their experiences, their sufferings and the impacts the incidents of violence on them and their families.

“Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons have failed to provide the conflict victims a chance to freely tell their tales of sufferings,” CVCP said.

In these programmes, 12 victims of violence perpetrated by both security forces and the erstwhile CPN-Maoist rebels will narrate stories. Twelve victims will narrate their tales in three programmes.

“If victims get a chance to tell their tales freely, it will lessen their pain and sufferings,” CVCP stated in its release, adding that it had also made arrangements for psycho-social counsellors for the victims.

CVCP will also make a documentary based on conflict victims’ narration which other conflict victims across the country can watch.

It said the conflict victims will narrate in what circumstances they and their loved ones were victimised and how they and their families coped with their situations.

The platform said that the victims’ narration of their sufferings would also help the transitional justice mechanism to find the truth and recommend justice for the victims.

Former chair of CVCP Suman Adhikari said the platform came with the idea of enabling the victims to record their sufferings as no other bodies, not even the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons, had done so.

“If victims get a chance to narrate their stories, that will help them relieve their anxiety and stress,” he said and added that the documentary that the CVCP was planning to make, would also enable the victims to link their incidents with other victims’ sufferings. He said the documentary would be available on the net which the conflict victims could watch from any part of the country.

Adhikari said that the conflict victims were angry that the government was trying to delay the transitional justice process. “Delay means denial of justice,” he added.

CVCP said unarmed citizens became victims of violence, including murder, enforced disappearance, rape, sexual violence, cruel and degrading treatment during the conflict and thousands of people were evicted from their property.

Victims of serious human rights violation and their family have not got chance to express their sufferings.