Editorial»
Deaths in Doti
OCT 31 - The National Human Rights Commission has asked the Defence Ministry to make public the findings of a recent investigation
on the deaths of students in Doti. On October 13, four students at Sharada Higher Secondary School in Mudbhara died when the army personnel opened fire at a gathering within the school premises where the Maoists were holding a cultural programme. Needless to say, the deaths of the innocent school children could have been avoided with some restraint from the security forces. The security forces have already probed that case.
But it is the National Human Rights Commission, which should be sending a fact-finding team to Doti on its own. The Commission is widely seen as an independent institution and its report will carry a far greater weight than that of the government. Such a practice is not without precedents, either. The Commission, for example, dispatched a fact-finding team to Doramba in Ramechhap, where 19 Maoists were dead on August 17. The Commission said that the Maoists were shot dead in cold blood while they were in conference.
A rights group, the National Campaign for Children—A Peace Zone, has claimed that some security personnel posted in Doti were against opening fire at the scene of the cultural programme, realizing all too well that such a move would expose innocent children to a great danger. The Defence Ministry has not yet claimed that the dead were Maoists as it did in the Doramba killings, for example. This begs a question: Why the innocent deaths and who gave the orders to fire at a cultural programme held within the school premises? Eyewitness accounts also lay the blame on the Maoists, who are said to have forced the school children to participate in the cultural programme despite warning from school teachers that the move would unnecessarily antagonise the security personnel posted not too far from the school.
Given the conflicting claims and counter-claims to the event, the Commission has to quickly stand up and clear the cloud of confusion surrounding the event. It is the Commission’s utmost duty to document ~ ~ cases of human rights abuses and it should not run away from its responsibility. It is through its impartial probes into human rights abuses that the Commission will see its public standing elevated, and the international community will form its opinion accordingly. The international community has already expressed deep dismay over the children’s deaths. The international community including UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy, a strong advocate of child rights, has already condemned the killings. The Commission should now lead the public debate over the incident with a quick probe.Posted on: 2003-10-30 10:14
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