E-Kantipur

SURKHET, DEC 17 -

With the signing of the seven-point deal by political parties in November this year, the regrouping of Maoist combatants and the run-up to concluding the peace process has begun. Some former Maoist combatants have decided to retire, satisfied with the money offered in the package—Rs 500,000 to 800,000 according to their position in the People’s Army—and others have chosen to stick with earlier demands to be integrated to the Nepal Army.

The peace process might appear to have worked in the favour of these combatants, but the discourse of rehabilitating conflict victims has seldom addressed the specific needs of the women among them—more particularly the needs of rape victims. Shanta Maya (name changed), who passes day and night crying a flood of tears, was raped some six years ago by security personnel in Dailekh district, where she used to run a small hotel. “They (army personnel) took me to their camp and I was gang raped. They blamed me for offering food to the Maoist fighters,” she said, echoing a known fact of rape being a tool of reprisal for siding with the enemy. 

In a two-room house in the middle of a maize field, Shanta Maya was lying on her bed when I visited her a few months back. She hasn’t been capable of helping herself as the incident traumatised and stigmatised her. From Dailekh, Shanta Maya had to move to Surkhet with her daughter—her husband had abandoned her and married another woman.

“I was drenched in blood and suffered from uterine prolapse. I did not receive financial relief for treatment, so I sold my house for Rs 90,000 and went to Surkhet.” The gross brutality and neglect has rendered Shanta Maya incapable of sitting or standing properly.

People affected by the ten-year armed conflict—those whose family members were killed, those injured, abducted or internally displaced, have been identified as ‘conflict victims’ by the government. But the term excludes children who were compelled to quit education to join the ranks of the combatants, and women who have been victims of physical and mental torture such as rape, thus barring them from being availed of relief packages.

Shanta Maya does not fit the bill of the current definition of a conflict victim, but she has been repeatedly visiting offices in Dailekh, the District Administration Office in Surkhet and the Peace Committee and VDC offices in the hopes of receiving compensation. These institutions did not hold back from declaring her a conflict victim, but strangely, recommendation letters handed to her by the government offices among them failed to categorise her as a rape victim. 

Chief District Officer (CDO) Hari Krishna Poudel did not seem alert to the matter. “Those not registered with the state will not get any compensation. But if there is such a recommendation made for her, I would like to investigate the matter myself,” he said. On being questioned about the rights of those subjected to the physical and mental torture of rape, Poudel said: “Every person across the country is a conflict victim directly or indirectly. It is a policy level decision to see whether victims who do not fall under any category should be included.”

For the many not identified as conflict victims, however, the quest for justice has been in vain. “It is difficult to make daily ends meet and there is the added expense of medicine and treatment. I can’t turn sides while sleeping. I would be happy if death came to me,” says Shanta Maya.

The fear of security personnel, on the other hand, has held other victims from speaking out. There is thus no count of them and neither a mechanism to do so. Nanda Bhandari, legal officer at Advocacy Forum, a human rights organisation, says that until and unless the state guarantees security to women, they will not come out in the open. “With no relief provisions to receive, why would they speak? They will only be stigmatised,” says Bhandari. 

Pavitra Shahi, coordinator of Awaaz—another human rights organisation—emphasises the need for an accessible means of achieving justice for victims of sexual abuse. “The state should make laws and provide hope for people to knock the doors of justice with confidence. If the law made rape a punishable offence, women would certainly come out and speak.”

As she says this, Chief of the Relief Distribution Unit at the Ministry of Peace and Rehabilitation, Ganesh Raj Upadhyay, mentions a recent work plan introduced by the government that would address victims of sexual abuse. “We do not have a separate provision for conflict victims of sexual abuse but they are addressed by the United Nation Security Council Resolution (UNSRC) which protects women’s rights in a war-affected country even after the war has ended.”

The legal provisions in the UNSRC resolution 1325 explicitly stresses the role of women in preventing and resolving conflict and ensures their increased representation at all decision-making levels. Resolution 1820 urges all governments, international and regional organisations to identify and condemn the systematic practice of rape and other forms of inhumane and degrading treatment of women as a deliberate instrument of war and ethnic cleansing. Both of these have become the basis for forming the national plan.

It has, however, been four years since the relief packages were announced but even many of those already categorised as conflict victims have not received relief. Ram Babu BC, Secretary of the Peace Committee in Surkhet district, says that relief is often delayed higher up in the hierarchy. “Once we receive an application, we call for a meeting within seven days, make recommendations for the victims and send it to the DAO, which then sends it to the central working group within seven to eight days,” he explains. 

Slow-paced administrative workings hold acknowledged conflict victims in a long, hopeful wait. But unrecognised victims like Shanta Maya do not have even this much. Like the UNSRC resolution states, rape has been a deliberate instrument of war all over the world—rape victims are undeniably conflict victims. Until their case is addressed, we can never hope for a lasting conclusion to the peace process.

 

Posted on: 2011-12-17 10:12

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