Deliver justice for disappeared: Amnesty asks Nepal

The failure of the Nepalese authorities to bring to justice those responsible for the disappearance of five men more than a decade ago is symptomatic of their wilful inaction in such cases, Amnesty International said today.
More than 1,300 people are thought to have disappeared during the armed conflict in Nepal between 1996 and 2006.
To date, not a single person suspected of criminal responsibility for serious human rights violations or crimes under international law committed during the conflict has been brought to justice in a criminal court.
"The Nepali authorities need to end the excuses and instead deliver justice for the victims and families of the disappeared," Richard Bennett, Asia Pacific Director at Amnesty International said ahead of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances tomorrow.

Every year on the International Day of the Disappeared victims' families in Nepal gather to demand that Nepal's government reveal the fate and whereabouts of victims of enforced disappearance and prosecute those suspected of committing them.
Forensic and DNA analysis completed earlier this year identified remains exhumed from grave sites near Janakpur, Danusha District as those of five men that were disappeared by security forces in 2003.

The analysis found that the 'Dhanusha Five' had been blindfolded, shot at close range and buried.
Ballistic analysis confirmed that bullets found at the burial site corresponded with ammunition only used by the Nepal Army at the time.

Sanjeev Kumar Karna and a group of ten friends were beaten and arrested by a group of army and police personnel while on a picnic in Janakpur on 8 October 2003.
Five of these young people, including Karna, were never seen alive again by their families.
In July 2014, more than decade after the murders, Nepali authorities returned the remains to surviving family members.
Despite the forensic evidence that the five youths were victims of extrajudicial execution, suspects - including high ranking police and military personnel - remain free, some in positions of authority.
Police investigations into the case appear to have stalled.