Kathmandu: Devi Sunuwar, the mother of Maina Sunuwar who was killed by army officers in 2004 during the Maoist war, has written to the UN Under-Secretary General demanding justice, accountability and guarantee of non-repetition of case like her daughter’s. In a letter addressed to Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Devi Sunuwar has said that the perpetrators of her daughter are still to be brought to justice.
The letter written on Monday reads as follows:
“Dear Sir,
As I mark the 21st anniversary of my then 15-year-old daughter’s torture and killing by army officers at the Shri Birendra Peacekeeping Training Centre (BPOTC) in Panchkhal, Kavre District, I am writing to you once again respectfully pleading to use your good offices and all leverage at your disposal to ensure justice, accountability and guarantee of non-repetition for my daughter’s case and many others who suffered grave human rights violations at the hands of the Nepal Army (NA) at BPOTC.
Despite the Kavre district court finding three NA officers (Colonel Bobi Khatri, Captain Amrit Pun and Sunil Adhikari) guilty of her murder and convicting them to imprisonment in 2017, none of them have been arrested and they continue to escape justice. I can but conclude they are protected by the NA.
I heard that the NA continues to lobby the United Nations support to upgrade BPOTC into a regional training centre for Asia and the Pacific region. I am writing this letter to plead with you to make sure that this does not happen unless clear conditions are met which guarantee truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence in respect of the murder of my daughter. I am sure you are aware, my daughter is not the only victim, there are numerous other allegations like of my daughter involving BPOTC.
I was approached by some army officers once to say that the NA is taking a memorialisation initiative to honour my daughter. Although memorialisation is one of the remedies I am seeking, I would like to put before you three critical conditions that I would consider essential for the NA to show its commitment to truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence.
Here they are:
1. The three convicted officers are arrested and made to serve the sentence imposed on them by the Kavre District Court in 2017. The NA may argue that these same officers have already served a sentence after they were court martialled in connection to my daughter’s killing on 8 September 2005. Let me be very clear: a) under international human rights law, crimes against civilians should not be handled by military courts; b) the charges considered by this court martial were in the nature of using wrong interrogation techniques and not following proper proceedings in the disposal of her dead body. They were sentenced to a mere six months’ imprisonment, temporary suspensions of promotions and a paltry monetary fine. The guilty officers did not actually have to serve the prison term because the court held that they had spent their time in confinement during the proceedings of the Court Martial.
I hope you agree with me that these officers should serve the sentence imposed by the Kavre District Court. If the NA states these officers are outside the country, I would like to have their cooperation for an investigation under extra-territorial jurisdiction.
2. Instead of facilitating the apprehension of these convicted officers, the NA filed a petition in the Supreme Court of Nepal in September 2017 seeking to vacate the decision of the Kavre District Court. I have been named as a respondent in this case and have been called to court hearings regularly, although these hearings are nearly always postponed. I believe this legal manoeuvring is an attempt to intimidate me into relinquishing my pursuit of justice for my daughter. It would be fair and proper if the NA withdrew this case, as a sign of its commitment to human rights and the rule of law.
3. The NA has contacted me offering to raise a statue at the BPOTC in commemoration of my daughter. If the above two conditions were met, I would be happy to have this, also as a way to recognize my daughter’s suffering to any visitors to the BPOTC and indeed the wider country. To agree to having the BPOTC as a regional training centre would only serve to legitimize the army’s crimes in my daughter’s case and many others, perpetuating impunity and disheartening victims and human rights advocates. I plead with you once again to make sure that the United Nations is not agreeing to this.
Finally, I want to press upon you that the transitional justice process in Nepal remains paralysed, nearly 20 years since the end of the armed conflict. The United Nations’ vetting process of Nepal’s peacekeeping forces remains a critical measure to push for accountability. In the meantime, allowing Nepal’s Army to continue training peacekeepers at BPOTC without meaningful progress on this case and the broader transitional justice process is simply a scandal.
Yours sincerely,
Devi Sunuwar”
Sunuwar has sent a copy of the letter to Hanaa Singer-Hamdy, UN Resident-Coordinator to Nepal.
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