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Extension Of Term Of Colonel Raju Basnet
By KTM Metro Reporter
October 22, 2010: the government of officiating Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has extended the term of the alleged culprit colonel Raju Basnet for two years drawing the sharp criticism from all the human rights organizations including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal (OHCHR-N) today.
The Madhav Government had also promoted another culprit implicated in the same case: Major General Toran Jung Bahadur Singh to the second-in-command of the Nepal Army disregarding the calls of the national and international human rights not to promote him but to bring him to justice in December 2009.
Singh and Basnet were implicated in the detention, torture and disappearance of 49 persons at Maharajgunj Barracks under the Bhairabnath Battalion between 2003 and 2004 according to the report submitted to the Government of Nepal by OHCHR-N for bringing the culprits to justice.
Anyone can easily conclude that the government of Madhav Nepal defeated in two constituencies has no respect for the rule of law so does not care for bringing the culprits to justice. The Madhav government is the most regressive government in the history of the democratic Nepal.
In a statement issued in Kathmandu today, Anthony Cardon, OIC of OHCHR-N said, "The extension in tenure of Colonel Raju Basnet together with the absence of any concrete step to initiate a proper investigation into the alleged human rights violations committed at Maharajgunj Barracks is a backward step in ensuring justice for the victims of conflict related human rights violations."
In statement released in Kathmandu today, Accountability Watch Committee (AWC) has also expressed its serious concern over the government’s decision on extending the term of Major Raju Basnet. President of AWC Sushil Pyakurel said that extending the term of Major Basnet the government has shown that it is not for ending the impunity in the Nepal Army. The government has extended the term of Major Raju Basnet ignoring the repeated calls of National Human Rights Commission, the Nepal Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the human rights community in Nepal for starting legal proceedings against the accused army officer Basnet, AWC has said in its statement.
