Nepal's four splinter Maoist groups today decided to unify their factions to oppose a move to bring civil war-era crimes under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court amid fears that their top leaders and cadres could face legal action for rights violations.
UCPN-Maoist chairman Prachanda and hardline chairman of CPN-Maoist Mohan Vaidya have all spoken out against the move to allow the apex court to bring crimes committed during the civil war under its jurisdiction.
The six different Maoist factions have been demanding that all insurgency-era rights violation cases should be handled by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons.
More than 16,000 people were killed during the decade-long insurgency that also displaced hundreds of thousands of others. The insurgency that started in 1996 ended in 2006 when the Maoists signed a peace agreement with the then government.
"The court is not God. It should give verdict in accordance with Nepali society, law and the spirit of the peace process," Narayankaji Shrestha, senior leader of UCPN-Maoist, said.
As per the Supreme Court verdict, the TRC has been barred from investigating cases of human rights violation that occurred during the decade-long Maoist insurgency and are going through court proceedings and are subjudice.
However, national and international rights watch groups have demanded that that serious cases of human rights abuses should be handled by courts while others could be considered for pardon.
Over 6,000 complaints were registered with the TRC within a month after it called upon victims and survivors of cases like murder, arson, rape, loot, extortion, torture and others.
Meanwhile, four Maoist factions including Prachanda-led UCPN-Maoist, CPN-Revolutionary Maoist led by Ram Bahadur Thapa, Revolutionary Communist Party led by Mani Thapa and another smaller faction led by Basanta Gharti have reached an agreement for unification.
The Maoist factions are likely to announce the unification within a week.
