Children increasingly caught in the conflict: NHRC

Kathmandu Oct 7-National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has said children are increasingly being caught in the nine-year-old armed conflict in the country.
A report made public by the Commission on Friday said both the security forces and Maoist insurgents had failed to respect children’s rights as per national and international laws. The Commission came down heavily upon the rebels for forcing hundreds of students and teachers across the country to take part in their indoctrination classes even after the unilateral ceasefire.
“Taking children into custody for whatever reasons is unacceptable,” said Sudip Pathak, member of the NHRC. He said though incidences like killings, torture and explosions and transport strike had declined substantially after the declaration of unilateral ceasefire by the rebels last month, cases of abductions had gone up. He said such activities won’t help to build confidence among the warring parties in order to kickstart the stalled peace process.
Pathak said the Commission had conveyed its concerns to the rebels and urged them to honour the spirit of the ceasefire declared by them.
The NHRC said its separate teams visited eleven districts across the country, namely Taplejung, Panchthar, Jhapa, Sindhupalchok, Kavrepalanchok, Baglung, Myagdi, Kalikot, Jumla, Darchula and Bajhang early this year and found that dozens of incidences of human rights abuses and violations from both sides in the conflict.
The report chronicles incidences like what it calls extra-judicial killing of five students in far-western district of Bajhang by security forces, killing of Kumar Singh Dhami, head teacher of Siptika Primary School in the district by a security patrol and detention of ten people-- including a minor-- by the district administration of Bajhang early last year while they had gone to hand over a memorandum to local authorities. These people are still in detention, the Commission said.
Similarly, the NHRC said it had evidence to prove that the Maoists had been recruiting children as soldiers in their outfit and that they were using the minors in activities supportive to their ‘people’s war.’ The Commission said its fact-finding missions found out that the insurgents had forced hundreds of school students to take part in their campaigns for a period ranging from one day to three months. The report has also compiled dozens of incidences of explosions, arson and damaging of private schools by the insurgents. The report said both the rebels and security forces had been using school premises for the purpose of armed conflict.
The Commission has urged both the security forces and the rebels to honour provisions of Child Rights Convention (CRC) – to which Nepal is a party—and declare schools as zones of peace.
Non-governmental groups monitoring the impact of conflict upon children say as many as four hundred children have been killed, hundreds of others have been rendered disabled and thousands have been displaced due to the nine-year-old conflict.