Nepal's Maoists ask govt to withdraw war-era cases from courts

Nepal's five Maoist parties have joined hands to press the government to bring the war-era sub-judice cases from various courts under the jurisdiction of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
UCPN-Maoist chief Prachanda and leaders of four other splinter groups from the same party met at UCPN (Maoist) party office at Perisdanda yesterday and decided to pile pressure on the government on the issue.
The four other parties were CPN-Revolutionary Maoist led by Mohan Baidya, CPN (Maoist) led by Matrika Yadav, Revolutionary Communist Party led by Mani Thapa and Naya Shakti Nepal led by Baburam Bhattarai.
The parties issued a joint statement today saying that allowing the regular courts to deal with the cases was a serious breach of the Comprehensive Peace Accord.

In the peace accord it was agreed that all war-era cases would be dealt by the TRC and not by regular courts.
CPN (RM) Secretary Dev Gurung said no other courts should be given the authority to look after the insurgency-era cases after the TRC began receiving complaints over the same issue.

"The courts do not have the rights to look after the war-era cases, but general courts are declining to transfer those cases to the jurisdiction of TRC," he was quoted as saying by the local media.
The former rebels' demand to transfer the cases from the courts to TRC comes at a time when the victims and human rights agencies have been pressing the government to make the transitional justice act on par with international standard.

They also decided to establish joint legal desk to help the war-era victims from the state sides for assisting them to file complaints at the TRC and the Commission for Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons.