Archive ref no: NCA-20816
December 19, 2012
Press Release
Our attention has been drawn by the media reports where the Ministry for Peace and Reconstruction (MoPR) accepted that the data it prepared on the number of the conflict victims is wrong.
On December 19, the state owned Nepali daily Gorkhapatra quoted MoPR under-secretary Prem Prasad Sanjel as saying that the Ministry found many of those in its killed list alive and some names repeated twice or thrice.
The government on March 19, 2011 declared that the number of killed in the conflict was 17,265 and number of victims of enforced disappearance was 1,302.
The MoPR conducted monitoring in several districts as there was no claim for government distributed interim relief of Rs 300,000 by the family members of 3,900 enlisted as war-time dead and disappeared people.
A team of MoPR reassessed the physical condition of the former Maoist combatants who were recommended for the facilities entitled to the war-induced injuries and disability in Achham district on December 14. The reassessment was carried out after the district-based human rights activists and media persons raised their concerns over the misuse of the national coffer. Ten people identified as disabled people of special category meaning who need lifelong and complete support of other people, turned out to be wrongly categorized and had in fact just minor injuries.
Such erroneous inclusion of the normal people in the list of conflict victims was due to the pressure exerted by the political parties. We thank the government for its attempt to correct and update the name-list of conflict victims despite being long delayed. We hope that the updated list would be factual and acceptable to all.
INSEC data show that a total of 13,276 killed and 934 victims of enforced disappearance in the conflict. INSEC had remained skeptical about the government data on the conflict victims and was raising this issue at the national, regional and district level.
We were trying to draw the attention towards the possibility of errors in the attempt because of the poor documentation system of the government. The government had compiled information through the staff of the local bodies and VDC secretaries were entrusted with the responsibility of preparing the list of conflict victims. The VDC secretaries compiled the data on conflict victims on the basis of the lists provided by the political parties at the local level.
We remain confident of the INSEC data and reiterate the commitment to conduct investigation if any doubt arises. We would like to draw the attention of the MoPR and all the political parties to create a process of coordination among the government, conflict victims and the civil society so that the victims are not left out from the records.
Subodh Raj Pyakurel
Chairperson