The family of Amar Bahadur Budha, who was arrested and disappeared by the Royal Nepalese Army during the armed conflict in Sutiya, Thakur Baba Municipality-8, on March 8, has performed his final rites. Losing hope for justice, the family conducted the final rites on April 16, after 23 years according to Hindu rituals, by creating a symbolic body with Kush (sacred grass).
Amar Bahadur Budha
In Bardiya, families of the disappeared have begun performing final rites in large numbers recently. The families of those who disappeared during the armed conflict have started performing final rites due to the lack of whereabouts of the disappeared. The condition of Amar Bahadur Budha, who was taken by the army, remains unknown. After two decades of waiting, the families have now carried out the final rites. Budha, who was dismissed from his job in the Nepalese Army due to political allegations, later joined a social movement and was elected as the Ward Chairperson from the CPN-UML in the 1997 election. The army suspected him of being a Maoist. His wife, Jamuna Budha, stated that his status has still not been revealed, even after 23 years. She raised one son and two daughters with great struggle after the disappearance of her husband. She mentioned that as a family of the disappeared, they had received some relief from the government. She added that relief alone is not enough and the government must first make the truth about her husband’s disappearance public. She expressed that it is heartbreaking that, even after 19 years of the peace agreement, the status of the disappeared has not been made public. According to her, the greatest pain is that the status of the disappeared remains undisclosed. She shared that although they had filed a complaint with the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons in 2017, no significant progress has been made.
After her husband disappeared from the army, Jamuna Budha has been shouldering all the responsibilities of the household on her own. She managed to provide a good education to her three children. After her daughters’ marriages, and her son moving away for employment, Budha now lives alone at home. She currently stays at home, having given up all her responsibilities. The family’s situation has become extremely difficult. She says, “I have waited for my husband for 23 years. Due to social, economic, legal, and cultural reasons, I have now been forced to perform the final rites. My wish and demand now is for the truth about my husband’s status to be made public and for my children’s future to be secured.
