By Kiran Chapagain
Brad Adams is the Asia director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based global human rights watchdog. He was in Kathmandu last week to release a human rights report entitled Still Waiting for Justice: No End to Impunity in Nepal, a follow up report on the status of impunity in Nepal. He has been following Nepal’s human rights issues since 2002.
The report, a joint work of HRW and Kathmandu-based Advocacy Forum, has pointed out Nepal’s failure to address human rights issues of the conflict period. In this context, myrepublica’s Kiran Chapagain talked to Adams Friday to know his views on the reasons behind the lack of progress in addressing impunity, international efforts to press the Nepal Army (NA) and the Maoists to cooperate in investigation of the conflict-time rights cases and the role of the international community in addressing impunity in Nepal.
Excerpts:
myrepublica: The report paints a bleak progress about Nepal’s efforts in addressing impunity in Nepal. What are the reasons for that?
Brad Adams: There are a number of reasons. First, the army protects its soldiers while the Maoists protect their fighters. They believe nobody in their ranks should be arrested.
Second, institutions like courts, police and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Nepal are weak. Police investigations are very weak. They do not have proper equipment, training and commitment. They do not wake up in the morning thinking “I am going to solve the crime”. They think of other things. The courts are also very weak though there are good lawyers and judges in this country. Similarly, other institutions like the NHRC are not playing their role. It should be strong enough in challenging the army and the Maoists.
The report has accused the army of not cooperating in investigating and prosecuting human rights abusers. Why do you think the army is not cooperating?
I think there are many reasons. One reason is that if individual soldiers are arrested, put on trial and found guilty, the question that will arise is: Who gave them the orders in the first place? So, the blame would shift to those in the upper ranks in the army. Is it possible that all these killings happened without any order being given?
Second, I think the army believes at the leadership level that they were right and the Maoists were wrong. They believe that they were fighting for a noble cause to save the country, save the monarchy against communism and whatever they did was necessary for the good of the country. They still seem to believe that.
Third, the army, actually the one is senior positions, believes they are above the law. They do not think that the law should cover them.
My Republica for more