Nepal’s ruling Maoist bargain government for transitional justice mechanisms

KATHMANDU: Recent uproar within the nation for prosecuting war-era human rights abuse and trial of Nepal Army colonel in London seems to have pressurized Nepal’s ruling Maoist to form Transitional Justice Mechanisms at the earliest.

Their urgency for the such mechanisms became evident after its party leadership tried to bargain the government leadership for the formation of such mechanisms and trying all cases on the basis of laws that the Bhattarai government had proposed in the TJM Bill presently under the President’s consideration.

UCPN Maoist leader Haribol Gajurel said that the delay in the formation of the TJM has been hindering the activities of his party and party leaders and said that the mechanisms should be formed without any further delays while speaking at an interaction program organized by the Reporters Club Nepal on Tuesday.

During the program presided by Reporters Club Nepal’s president Rishi Dhamala, Gajurel said that his party was ready to finalize all war era incidents of human rights and violence through the TJM.

While trying to console the concerns of rights organizations that claim that the TJM bill has tried to provide blanket amnesty to war crimes, he said that all issues of war-era violence that occurred as per the party’s policy should be considered for reconciliation efforts and other incidents that were not directed by the party should be executed as per existing laws.

The Maoist’s leaders statement comes at a time when major political parties are trying to forge consensus on forming an electoral government in the leadership of Chief Justice Khilaraj Regmi.

Till Monday, parties had cleared all contentions in the package deal for Regmi led government that included the date of the CA elections, number of constituencies, tenure of the CA, authority of the electoral government and the political mechanisms to be formed to support the electoral government.

However they failed to form electoral government after UCPN Maoist stressed on including the TJM in the package deal. However the proposal has been resisted by the opposition parties and derailed the consensus garnering efforts between political parties.

Gajurel took the credit on his party’s behalf for foiling the consensus talks by raising the issue of TJM and said that his party wont agree to the terms of the opposition to step down from government unless their demand of TJM formation and Madheshi Morcha’s demand of citizenship is resolved.

Along with that he also credited international power sources for foiling the consensus talks.