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Raped during conflict, woman cries for justice

NEPALGUNJ, JAN 10 -
A 40-year-old woman, who was allegedly gang-raped by Nepal Army personnel during the insurgency, has complained that she has neither received any relief nor been given justice so far.

A permanent resident of Khursanibari in Dailekh, she is living a displaced life in Surkhet’s Uttarganga.

“I could not get proper treatment due to lack of money. I am living a wretched life,” said the woman, who is eking out a living by running a tea shop at Khursanibari.

Then lieutenant of Bhawani Baksh Battalion at Kandachowr in Dailekh Jibesh Thapa and four of his colleagues were accused of torturing and gang-raping the woman in November 23, 2004.

The victim said that they brought her to the barracks on the pretext of inquiring about her husband Chandra Neupane, who was charged with aiding the UCPN (Maoist) in the civil war. “They started torturing and sexually harassing me in the barracks. I could not fight and fell on the ground and four army men gang-raped me,” she said.

She said they threw her outside the barracks after the rape and was later admitted in a hospital in Lucknow in India after a referral from Surkhet hospital. She said she spent Rs 90,000 in her treatment, which she collected by selling a plot of land given by her parents.

She registered the case in the Supreme Court after Dailekh District Police Office refused to do so. However, to add to her woes, the court rejected the case, depriving her of justice. She is now living with her daughter after her husband married another woman. “My backbone aches and I cannot carry a load,” she said, adding that she has to visit the doctor twice a month, but lack of money has added to her problems.

Basanta Gautam, coordinator of an NGO advocating for justice for such victims, said that the culture of impunity is on the rise as complaints related to such cases are discouraged.

Posted on: 2012-01-11 08:43

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