Ruling Party's Split Continues to Fuel Conflict in Provinces
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WITHOUT F EAR OR FAVOUR Nepal’s largest selling English daily Vol XXVIII No. 304 | 8 pages | Rs.5 O O Printed simultaneously in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Bharatpur and Nepalgunj 25.6 C -8.5 C Friday, January 01, 2021 | 17-09-2077 Biratnagar Jumla The Kathmandu Post wishes its readers, Ruling party’s split advertisers and well-wishers continues to fuel Happy New Year 2021 conflict in provinces Province 1 Chief Minister Rai suspends 15 party members after they file a no-confidence motion against him. TIKA R PRADHAN mentary party, but they directly regis- KATHMANDU, DEC 31 tered it at the assembly’s secretariat which is unlawful,” said Rai. Two days after Prime Minister KP According to Rai, the party statute Sharma Oli’s Cabinet recommended stipulates that the provincial the dissolution of the House of parliamentary party leader be chosen Representatives, his Nepal Communist before a no-confidence motion can be Party, through a decision of its Central registered. Committee, in which the opposition However, according to Rajendra faction has a majority, took discipli- Rai, who belongs to the Dahal-Nepal nary action against him. faction, that is not necessary. Then the faction led by Pushpa It was only on Wednesday evening, Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar three days after registering the no-con- Nepal, through the party’s Central fidence motion against Rai, that Committee, nominated Nepal as chair, members of the provincial parliamen- replacing Oli. tary party elected Bhim Acharya, The split at the centre is now rever- also a member of the party’s berating in the provinces. Standing Committee, as its leader by On Thursday, Chief Minister of ousting Rai. Province 1 Sherdhan Rai, a close ally Acharya, who belongs to the Dahal- of the prime minister, suspended 15 Nepal faction, had lost by two votes POST PHOTO: DEEPAK KC provincial lawmakers of his own against Rai in the provincial parlia- The last sunrise of 2020, as seen from Dahachok, Kathmandu on Thursday. party for three months for their mentary party leader election in 2017. involvement in a no-confidence Of the 93 members in the Province 1 motion against him. assembly, the Nepal Communist Party “The process of taking action has 67. against the provincial assembly “We have elected Bhim Acharya as members who defied the party our parliamentary party leader after statute has begun with the suspension suspending Sherdhan Rai,” said Indra With no House, amendment to transitional justice of a number of them,” Rai, the Aangbo, who was a minister in Rai’s chief minister, told the Post over the Cabinet before being sacked. “Both phone. sides are trying to attract members of On Monday the chief minister had the provincial assembly.” law, as per court order, remains uncertain sought clarification from 19 members According to Aangbo, of the 37 of the Dahal-Nepal faction who had assembly members who had signed signed the no-confidence motion reg- the no-confidence motion, one has The government is preparing to extend the terms of the commissioners assigned to look into conflict-era cases once istered at the assembly secretariat on switched to Rai’s camp while two Sunday. members of Rai’s camp have joined again. Why not bring an ordinance to amend the law as ordered by the Supreme Court in 2015 instead, victims say. “They should have first registered them. the motion at the provincial parlia- >> Continued on page 2 BINOD GHIMIRE ernment has taken any concrete steps to amend the Act as per court’s order. KATHMANDU, DEC 31 toward amending the Act as directed Dahal’s Maoist party, after factions by the Supreme Court. of it broke away, became the The wait for justice for the victims of According to a member of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist decade-long armed conflict between Commission of Investigation on Centre) and this new version merged 1996 and 2006 has already been a long Enforced Disappeared Persons, one with the CPN-UML to form the Nepal one. of the two transitional justice Communist Party in 2017. Now, it seems certain that the wait commissions, amending the law is The government seems to be focused will continue. imperative for delivering justice to the on extending the terms of the commis- Ministers from the KP Sharma Oli victims. sioners of the disappearance inquiry government had been promising rep- “It is not possible to deliver justice commission and the Truth and resentatives of the conflict victims to to the victims without revising the Reconciliation Commission which table a bill to amend the Enforced Act,” Sunil Ranjan Singh, a member expire on February 9 despite the com- Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and of the disappearance commission, missions making little progress since Reconciliation Act-2014 in the winter told the Post. “We, along with the vic- they were formed in 2015. session of the federal parliament to tims, urge the government to revise The two commissions were given revise the law as directed by the the Act through an ordinance.” two years to complete the investiga- Supreme Court. But Oli has dissolved Earlier on November 29, during a tion into the conflict-era cases of Parliament after he was unable to face meeting with the office-bearers of the human rights violations and recom- opposition from his own Nepal Conflict Victims Common Platform, mend actions against the perpetra- Communist Party. then Minister for Law, Justice and tors. But their terms were extended by Soon after the law was enacted in Parliamentary Affairs Shiva Maya two more years in 2017, through an amendment in the Act, as they couldn’t complete even the process to collect the complaints. In January 2019, the government amended the Act once again to extend the terms of the two commissions by a year with the possibility of extension by another year. So far, the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons has completed preliminary investigations into 2,506 cases while the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has completed preliminary investigations on 3,500 of the 63,718 cases that have been filed to it. Talking to the Post, newly appointed Law Minister Shrestha said he is aware of the need to revise the Act to extend the tenure of the com- missions. “I can tell you about the term exten- sion. I have already started a prepara- tion to issue an ordinance for it,” Shrestha said. The new teams of the chairpersons and members of the two commissions POST ILLUSTRATION POST were appointed in January. This will be a third revision to the Act to extend 2015, the Supreme Court, ruling on a Tumbahangphe had said that the gov- the tenure of the commissions if the writ petition, had directed the govern- ernment was working sincerely to ordinance is issued as planned. ment to amend the Act saying that revise the law during the winter ses- Victims are not surprised. mass pardon cannot be given to perpe- sion of Parliament. Minister for “I had a little hope even when trators of gross human rights viola- Foreign Affairs Pradeep Gyawali had Tumbahangphe and Gyawali assured tions like enforced disappearances, made similar commitments during us,” Deb Bahadur Maharjan, general rapes, tortures and extra-judicial his interaction with the victims on secretary of the Conflict Victims killings. December 13. Common Platform, told the Post. “The The existing Act has several provi- In his questionable Cabinet reshuf- dissolution of the House has further sions that give the transitional justice fle, Oli appointed a new law minister dashed our hopes.” commissions room for amnesty even and he does not think that an amend- The conflict victims say that in serious cases of human rights vio- ment will happen. Shrestha’s argument that it cannot lations. However, since then no gov- “We need a broader consensus to revise the Act without consensus amend the Act as per the court’s is nothing but an excuse to delay ruling,” newly appointed Law justice. Minister Lilanath Shrestha told “The Oli government, if it is sincere the Post. towards the victims, can incorporate According to Minister the directives of the Supreme Court Shrestha, as the Nepali Congress through an ordinance,” Suman and then Communist Party of Adhikari, whose father Muktinath Nepal (Maoist) are the major was shot dead by Maoist rebels in stakeholders of the transitional Lamjung after tying him to a tree in justice, consent from Sher 2002, told the Post. Bahadur Deuba, president of the “I fail to believe the government, main opposition, and Pushpa which can dissolve Parliament abrupt- Kamal Dahal, co-chair of Nepal ly, cannot revise the transitional Communist Party, is necessary justice Act without consensus.” C M Y K FRIDAY, JANUARY 01, 2021 | 02 NATIONAL All positive samples of people returning from UK to be sent for whole-genome sequencing So far at least seven have tested positive and their samples will be handed over to the World Health Organization to send them to a laboratory abroad for testing. Despite arrival ban from the UK, people are still coming in, officials say. ARJUN POUDEL tive to coronavirus is growing, as the detected just a few weeks ago but KATHMANDU, DEC 31 arrival of people from the UK have not according to the BBC, the new variant stopped,” Rajesh Kumar Gupta, of the virus detected in the UK could Swab samples of all those people com- spokesperson at the National Public be 70 percent more infectious than ing from the United Kingdom in recent Health Laboratory, told the Post. “We other variants circulating across the days who have tested positive to will send all the samples of the infect- world.