CPN-MC must own up for drafting minors in the Maoist army during the insurgency
The Supreme Court (SC) has finally allowed the former Maoist child soldiers to file a writ petition at the court seeking legal action against sitting Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and former prime minister Baburam Bhattarai for conscripting minors into the Maoist army during the decade-old Maoist insurgency. Nine former Maoist child soldiers, including Lenin Bista, have filed a writ petition at the court demanding action against Dahal and Bhattarai for their alleged involvement in war crimes. Earlier, the SC registrar had decided not to entertain the writ, stating that the issue was related to the peace process, which should be handled under the Truth and Reconciliation Act (TRC) formed in 2014. However, a single bench of Justice Ananda Mohan Bhattarai quashed the SC registrar's decision, and allowed them to file the writ. It may be recalled that Bista was barred from taking part in an international conference entitled 'Youth in conflict areas: Healing in peace building through social engagement' in 2018 when KP Oli was the prime minister. The first hearing of the writ has been scheduled for today. During the final verification of the Maoist combatants, UNMIN had disqualified as many as 2,973 persons as child soldiers.
In the writ, the petitioners have claimed that they were forcibly drafted into the Maoist army in clear violation of international law, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Convention on the Rights of the Child. In the petition, they have said that they were forced to carry guns, work as spies against the state, carry war materials and prepare meals for the fighters, among others. They have also demanded enough reparation and long-term assistance for the time they were compelled to work as child soldiers. They have also threatened to knock on the door of the International Court if the SC did not address their plight. Following the verification process, the unqualified combatants, or the child soldiers, were sent home without any compensation from the state.
Various national and international reports had then confirmed that the CPN-Maoist Centre had drafted minors as child soldiers during the war that left as many as 17,000 people dead and thousands of others missing. It is the responsibility of the party, now in power, to address their plight as they lost their youthful time and energy for the senseless so-called People's War. Pressures are mounting on PM Dahal to step down to face the allegation of war crimes. Not only this, PM Dahal is also facing another writ petition in which a dozen people have demanded legal action against him for publicly admitting that he would own up responsibility for the deaths of 5,000 people during the insurgency. It is yet to be seen what sort of action the SC would take in both the cases. But what is sure is that the issues of war crimes and other serious human rights abuses will continue to hound the Maoist leadership until the TRC Act takes legal action against the human rights violators as per the international standard and the SC's two seminal verdicts issued earlier. The TRC Act, tabled in the Federal Parliament, should be amended in a manner that books the rights violators and gives proper justice to the conflict victims.
Educational hub
That 13 per cent of graduates of Kathmandu University are foreign nationals from 55 countries should come as a pleasant surprise to many. The university, which held its 28th convocation ceremony on Sunday, has been developing as a centre of excellence, and sets itself apart from Tribhuvan University which has always been mired in politics. Foreign students come to Nepal to study different subjects, with those from the developing world opting for science subjects such as medicine and engineering, while those from the developed world concentrated on Nepal studies, culture, sociology and anthropology.
There is great possibility for Nepal developing into an educational hub, as outlined by the Prime Minister at the convocation ceremony. Courses offered by Tribhuvan University, for example, in the fields of medicine, engineering, business studies and agriculture have a good reputation, and could become a good source of income for Nepal while contributing to the manpower needs of developing countries in Asia and Africa. But before Nepal really becomes an educational hub, there must be political stability, and the parties must refrain from using educational institutes as playing grounds for their cadres.
A version of this article appears in the print on June 13, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.