PM stops trials involving Maoists
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) - Nepal's Maoist Prime Minister Baburan Bhattarai is trying to thwart a number of murder investigations, including the death of Dekendra Thapa, a journalist who was killed in 2004 in Dailekh by Maoist fighters.
Hundreds of journalists marched in protest yesterday in the capital and in Dailekh, accusing the government of trying to muzzle media organisations, sometimes by issuing death threats, in order to conceal the brutal actions carried out by Maoists during the civil war against the monarchy (1995-2006).
The prime minister's move follows the arrest on 4 January of Lachhiram Gharti, a former official in the Maoist rebel forces, who is suspected of murder.
When Maoists came to power in 2008, it became taboo to talk about the crimes committed during the civil war. In fact, despite the creation in 2007 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established with the assistance of the United Nations, Maoists and Communists have refused to hand over their members involved in crimes committed during the war.
The Unified Communist Party of Nepal Maoist and the Nepal Communist Party are the only parties to have governed the country since the fall of the monarchy.
According to many activists, governments under the extreme left have created a climate of impunity to protect their leaders and ideology.
In 2010, the Communist government dropped 309 legal cases. In 2008 and 2009, the Maoist government of the time dropped another 282 cases.
Dekendra Thapa's murder is one of the murkiest episodes in the country's civil war. A reporter with a paper in Daileck district, he was investigating brutal actions carried out by Maoist rebels in local villages against people resisting their rule.
In order to prevent him from bringing his findings to a wider audience, Maoists decided to abduct him in August 2004. His body was discovered after two weeks and only after his wife filed a missing person report. An initial police probe found that he was beaten and then buried unconscious but alive.
Speaking to his lawyer, Gharti apparently said that "Thapa's heart was still beating when we decided to bury him. We were in nine and I dug the hole," the Kantipur Daily reported.
Gharti's lawyer is not talking about the matter anymore after receiving an order from Prime Minister Bhattarai.
For Devendra Poudel, the prime minister's main adviser, reporters are using the Thapa case for political purposes. The government, he insists, wants the truth.
With this in mind, it is setting up a commission to investigate the broader issue, not individual cases.
Yesterday, the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) submitted a memorandum to the prime minister, asking for a fair investigation and just punishment for the culprits.
"By stopping the investigation, the prime minister is covering up the crimes," FNJ secretary Jagat Nepal said.
A recent report by Freedom Forum, a media watchdog, Nepali journalists are under constant pressure and harassment from the authorities whenever they touch highly political or embarrassing issues.
In 2012, various media were the object of 23 death threats and 22 attacks. Some 23 journalists were also attacked by strangers or police.
.png)
29/08/2011
