Laxmi Chaudhary, 50, of Dekhatbhuli VDC-9, mother of 15-year-old Paramlauti who was abducted from her school by security personnel in 2002, still awaits her daughter’s return.
Laxmi Chaudhary, 50, of Dekhatbhuli VDC-9, mother of 15-year-old Paramlauti who was abducted from her school by security personnel in 2002, still awaits her daughter’s return. Paramlauti, a sixth grader when she was abducted, is one of the five people who disappeared from the village during the Maoist insurgency.
Speaking at an interaction among conflict victims in the district on Sunday, Laxmi demanded that the government give her information about her daughter and provide the remains of the girl’s body, if she is dead, so that they could at least perform the last rites.
The conflict victims also said they are still sceptical about justice being served to them even though the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons have already been formed. They said the limited authority given to the commissions and dispute over their jurisdiction as well representation of the victims may make them ineffective to carry out their task.
The participants, however, hailed the Supreme Court’s directive denying amnesty to people involved in human rights violation and said it was an important step towards their quest for justice.
“We have been hearing about the dispute in each and every issue of the transitional justice process since its conception. Some favour granting amnesty while others are against such provision. It is the victims who should have been consulted on such issues,” Laxmi said.
Likewise, another conflict victim Hira Bhandari of Daiji VDC said they will not be comfortable to open up to the officials concerned even if they come to their doorsteps.
Bhandari’s husband Ranganath, nephew Dirgha and neighbours Tek Bahadur Rawal, Siddharaj Pandeya and Harke Sarki were murdered. Security personnel had taken all of them to a nearby stream and shot them to death.
Most of the victims participating in the programme said they want to know what happened to their relatives and why. “How can we call it justice without understanding what they had done to deserve such fate?” Bhandari asked, adding that failure to deliver justice could lead to revenge.
Arguing that the commissions without representatives from the conflict victims will have no idea about their suffering, Dharma Chaudhary, chairperson of the Society of Conflict Victims for Justice, said the failure of the authorities concerned to ascertain the exact number of the victims even after a decade has already created suspicion about the effectiveness of the justice process.
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