The month of August saw no respite to the ongoing human rights violation in the country. Security remained a major concern in the southeast plains of Nepal because of the activities carried out by the armed groups who have been utilizing the volatile transitional period after the establishment of Loktantra. Initially justified as being groups especially catering the interest of the people of plains, such groups have basically developed into gangs deprived of any political principles. Almost all of these groups are involved in abductions, extortion, threats and even killing. The human rights situation in other parts of the country also remained the same. According to INSEC 14 persons were killed and 17 abducted by such groups in the month of August.
Absence of security mechanism is conspicuous in the country paving way for the political parties to capitalize this absence of security mechanism situation to establish their own force. The parties have justified such forces of being supplementary to maintaining ‘law and order’. The activities of Maoists’ youth wing Young Communist League (YCL) had already wearied people by taking law in their hands. Now, the youth wing of CPN (UML) is following the same. The group has been using its own ways to ensure ‘rule of law’ and in the process undermining the state mechanism. The actions of Youth Force raised great concern and the human rights community was compelled to make a statement asking it to end its acts of policing.
YCL has been criticized for its pseudo-police activities. On August 2008, too, the group was involved in acts like threatening and beating, which remains its major characteristics since its inception. The CPN (Maoist) leadership promised many times to disband the group amid growing criticism from the political parties and civil society. But, it seems they were, nonetheless, imperative for ensuring the political way as justified by the copycat version of Youth Force by the UML. It would be no surprise if other political parties also follow the suit of setting up their own ‘militant’ youth wing. Alarmed human rights community even released a press statement appealing Youth Force to restraint its action but in vain.
Violence against women remained an alarming reminder of their insecurity in the country. Rape, dowry related violence, domestic violence occurred almost everyday. The women human rights community had to stage hunger strike to draw the attention of the government towards this plight. The strike held demanding action against the “in-laws” of one woman human rights defender based in Kailali district claiming she was killed in domestic violence bungled the government. The government formed a committee led by Bindra Hada to formulate laws against domestic violence. This can be seen as a crucial step towards curbing the prevalence of the violence against women. However, sexual violation including rape remained another concern. In number of incidents the victims were child girls.
The political sphere seemed to be heading towards stability with Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda elected as the first Prime Minister of the democratic republic Nepal. The council of ministers was fulfilled after much wrangling among the political parties. It was sad to see that the political parties, who were able to make history with peaceful transformation of the country from monarchy to republic, were still in the run of power lust. Now, as the government has got its final shape, people are hopeful that it would straightly enter its business.
One of the legacies of the Maoist conflict was the improvised explosive devices. The devices assembled during that period continued to go off creating casualties among the civilians. The use of the devices has been picked up by other groups including armed groups of Terai and hill side based groups like Kirant Workers Party. They are detonating explosive devices causing damage of private and government property and spreading terror among the general public.
