Kathmandu: The Nepal Army today set up a court of inquiry to probe the case of a controversial major accused of raping and killing a 15-year-old girl during the country's decade-long civil war, ignoring global pressure to hand him over to a civil court to face trial, a news report said.
The military formed a court of inquiry to investigate the case of Major Niranjan Basnet's expulsion from the UN peacekeeping mission in Chad on charges of his involvement in human rights violation in Nepal.
Major General B A Kumar Sharma, the chief of the legal department of Army, said the court will soon start the investigation into Basnet's case. Basnet, accused of torturing Maina Sunuwar to death during the Maoists-led insurgency, was arrested by the Military Police on his arrival from New Delhi on December 13, The Himalayan Times daily reported today.
The army major, who had been serving under United Nations Peace Keeping Mission, was expelled following his conviction in the murder case by a district court.
Brigadier General Pradeep Bahadur Singh will the Court of Inquiry with Colonel Shiva Ram Kharel and Lt. Colonel Rabindra KC as members. The team is expected to submit its report within the stipulated time, the report said.
There is growing national and international pressure on the government and the Nepal Army to put Basnet through a judicial process in a civil court.
However the military is refusing to oblige even as the Ministry of Home had written to the army asking it to present him in civil court, the report said. According to a military source, there was no possibility of presenting Basnet in a civil court.
According to an unnamed top army official, the military "had already investigated the matter and found that Basnet was innocent in that case." He is one of the four
primary accused in Maina Sunuwar’s disappearance, torture and murder in February 2004.
However, the alleged murder by the military man has sparked an outrage among the international human rights groups and western governments, who have demanded that Basnet must be handed over to the civilian administration for trial.
The US has passed a law that denies financial aid to the Nepal government, amid stepped up pressure on the country's army to fulfil its human rights obligations.
US President Barack Obama has signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2010, which prohibits assistance to the Nepal Armed Forces till they fulfil their
human rights obligations, my republica online, the website of Republica newspaper, has said.
"In large measure, and as others have pointed out, Maina´s death will decide whether a civilian, democratic government and the rule of law will determine Nepal´s future, or it will remain dominated by the interests of the Nepal army," Senator Patrick Leahy was quoted as saying by the Nepalese news portal.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, December 21, 2009, 23:28