Decade after Nepal peace pact, war crimes finally probed

A handful of faded photographs has long been Suntali Rasaili's only treasured momento of her teenage daughter, allegedly executed by Nepali soldiers at the height of the Maoist insurgency.
But a decade after Maoist rebels signed a peace pact, families of victims are also hoping for justice, as Nepal prepares this month to start investigations into crimes committed during the conflict.
Rasaili is among thousands filing complaints with two commissions, one of which is headed by a high-ranking judge and the other by a senior parliamentary official.
The commissions have a two-year term and were set up to probe murders, rapes, forced disappearances and other atrocities.

"I feel like I won't find any peace until I die... Not unless I get justice for my daughter," Rasaili told AFP.
One night in February 2004, dozens of soldiers turned up at Rasaili's home, demanding to see her daughter Reena whom they suspected of being a Maoist.

Plucking the 17-year-old from her bed, the soldiers barred her parents from leaving the house, the family says. Hours later, three gunshots rang out across the isolated hamlet.
Reena's body was found slumped next to a tree and the soldiers were gone. She had been shot in the head, eye and chest, according to activists who took up the case.

"Reena enjoyed school, she used to say that once she finished her studies and got a job, she would take care of the family and look after us in our old age," Rasaili said.
"Her death tore apart our family. After that I never wanted to let any of my children out of my sight, I was scared they would never come back," she added.
More than 17,000 people were killed, 1,300 people disappeared and thousands were displaced during the decade-long war that ended in 2006.
The peace deal signed between Maoists and government forces included plans for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a Commission for Enforced Disappearances.

But Nepal only established the two bodies in 2015 after years of political infighting over how to bring justice to victims of abuses committed by both sides.
Activists say the delay reflects authorities' reluctance to find the perpetrators, many of whom still occupy positions in the military and political parties.
"Whether it's the Maoists or the police or the army, all the people involved in these crimes are on the same page," said Ram Kumar Bhandari, coordinator of the National Network of Families of the Disappeared and the Missing.
"They have come together to cover the truth and hide the truth.