Nepal Maoists warn to revolt if cases against them revived

Nepal's Maoist chief Prachanda today warned of a revolt if civil war-era cases were revived "to defame" his party's image ahead of crucial elections.
Prachanda said all conflict-era cases should be dealt through the yet to be formed 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission', which will investigate crimes committed during the country's 10-year civil war.
The commission was a part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the war in 2006.
The Maoist chief's remarks came in the wake of the investigation process initiated by the government recently over the alleged Maoist-killing of 16-year-old Krishna Prasad Adhikary in Chitawan district of central Nepal in 2004.

The boy's parents, Nanda Prasad and Ganga Adhikary, are staging a hunger strike for over one month demanding justice.
"Reviving such cases is a serious ploy to tarnish our party's image at the time of election," Prachanda has claimed.

Regular court cannot deal with war-era cases and all political parties and the government should understand this, said UCPN(Maoist) chief Prachanda alias Pushpa Kumar Dahal.
A few cases against Maoist leaders have been intentionally revived to bar some popular leaders to contest in the elections in November, the former Prime Minister claimed.
Nine thousand cases of the abuses of human rights and humanitarian law, committed mostly by the then Royal Nepal Army and the Maoist rebels, have been documented in the Nepal Conflict Report published by the UN's Office for High Commissioner for Human Rights in October last year.

Though statistics vary, according to UN estimates, 13,000 people died and 1,300 disappeared during the war.