By Binod Ghimire in The Kathmandu Post, June 09, 2023
The government has ignored the National Human Rights Commission’s recommendation to investigate Janata Samajbadi Party chair Upendra Yadav among 129 others in connection with the 2007 Gaur massacre.
The constitutional human rights watchdog on January 7 had asked government agencies through the Prime Minister’s Office to probe the heinous crime and take action against Yadav and others, if found guilty. The commission also demanded the progress made in the investigation every three months.
However, five months since, the government hasn’t abided by the recommendations that are legally binding. “We haven’t received any report about the investigation. The commission’s recommendations have been left unimplemented,” Shyam Babu Kafle, chief at the investigation division of the commission, told the Post. He said the only response they have received so far is from the Armed Police Force, which said it has not given any post-retirement appointments to officials who are accused in the incident.
In its recommendations, the commission had asked the government to proceed with the investigation of the complaint lodged with the Rautahat District Police Office on May 11, 2007 and report to the commission about the progress every three months. It also asked to provide Rs300,000 to each victim family while also providing free treatment to the injured, seeking details of all of it but to no avail.
The constitutional rights watchdog had concluded that the killings of more than two dozen people were well orchestrated and that both the then Madheshi Janadhikar Forum Nepal and CPN (Maoist) were aware of possible violence.
On March 21, 2007, as many as 27 individuals associated with the Maoists were brutally killed and another 115 were injured in the incident.
As neither party took any initiative to averting the violence, the commission had also decided to draw the attention of Pushpa Kamal Dahal, then Maoist chairperson, Prabhu Sah, then general secretary of the Madheshi Mukti Morcha, Bindesh Yadav, Rautahat district chief of the then Maoist ‘People’s government’, and Yadav, the then MJFN chairman.
Concluding its investigation more than than 15 years after the incident, the commission had also directed the government to take departmental actions against then Rautahat district police chief Yogeshwar Romkhami; then chief district officer Madhav Prasad Ojha; Superintendent of Police Ram Kumar Khanal; deputy superintendent of Armed Police Force Dharmananda Sapkota; and sub-inspector Kamakhya Narayan Singh. If they are no longer in service, it asked the concerned authorities not to give them an opportunity in future government service.
The Armed Police Force said its accused staff in the incident haven’t been given any responsibility after their retirement.
The commission also concluded that the incident happened since the Maoists insisted on holding their programme in the Rice Mill area of Gaur where the MJF-Nepal had already booked a spot as the venue for its mass meet.
Several human rights commissions came to similar conclusions. In its report in April 2007, the Human Rights Watch remarked that there was no doubt that most, if not all, of the killings could have been prevented.
Aruna Joshi, joint-secretary at the Human Rights Division of the Prime Minister’s Office, said they had written to the Ministry of Home Affairs to implement the commission’s directive. “The prime minister’s office doesn’t implement [the directive by] itself but directs the respective line agencies to act. However, there has been no progress so far,” Joshi told the Post. “We are continuously following up the matter with the agencies of concern.”
The implementation of the commission’s recommendations by the government has been very low over the years. Less than 15 percent of its recommendations have been fully implemented so far. “The commission can publish the names of the people who didn’t cooperate in implementing its recommendations. However, the commission hasn’t taken that step,” said Kafle.
It’s not just the government that is reluctant to abide by the commission’s recommendations, the judiciary too hasn’t given due priority to hearing petitions related to the incident.
The victims from the incident have lodged a petition at the Supreme Court demanding its intervention in the investigation of the case. The hearing that was supposed to be conducted by a single bench of Justice Prakash Man Singh Raut couldn’t take place on Thursday. The hearing was deferred twice earlier.
Human rights activists say the government’s reluctance in implementing the commission’s recommendations is a reflection of a culture of promoting impunity. “Culture of impunity is dominant. Many criminal acts have been politically patronised,” Shree Ram Adhikari, a former officer at the commission, told the Post. “The government has not only failed in implementing recommendations from the constitutional commission but is also completely indifferent to different UN standards, guidelines, and resolutions. People will not get justice as long as fugitives are present in Parliament.”
https://kathmandupost.com/national/2023/06/09/government-ignoring-human-rights-commission-s-recommendations-to-investigate-the-gaur-massacre
