Nepal approves long-delayed war crimes bill

KATHMANDU: Nepal´s parliament approved on Wednesday long-delayed amendments to the transitional justice act aimed at addressing war crimes committed during the country´s Maoist insurgency, but victims said some problematic provisions remain.

Both security forces and former rebels have been accused of carrying out torture, killings, rapes and forced disappearances during Nepal´s decade-long civil war, which ended in 2006 with more than 16,000 people dead and around a thousand missing. “We have brought this document forward through a unanimous agreement,” Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli told parliament, saying that the changes were “victim-centric”.

The amendment bill was passed with the support of a majority of lawmakers, parliamentary speaker Dev Raj Ghimire said. The peace deal brought the Maoist rebels into mainstream politics, ended a 240-year-old Hindu monarchy, transformed Nepal into a secular federal republic and integrated former rebels into the national army.

But authorities have been criticised for failing to adequately probe war crimes and instead create provisions for amnesty, with two commissions set up for that purpose in 2015 failing to resolve a single case between them despite over 60,000 complaints.

“We have to implement this historic and sensitive work with consensus and without any favour or bias,” Pushpa Kamal Dahal, a former rebel leader and leader of the opposition, told the parliament. The latest amendment, which were agreed through a cross-party taskforce earlier this month, is intended to help Nepal heal some of the wounds left by the 10-year civil war.