Nepal SC orders its administration to take petition against PM Prachanda for deaths during insurgency

Nepal’s Supreme Court has ordered its administration to register a writ petition against Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda for claiming responsibility for 5,000 deaths during the decade-long insurgency. Hearing a case filed by two advocates against the decision of the Supreme Court administration to reject their petitions, a division bench of justices Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada and Hari Prasad Phuyal on Friday ordered the court administration to register the petition.

Advocates Gyanendra Aaran and Kalyan Budhathoki, who are also conflict victims, filed separate writ petitions at the Supreme Court but the administration on November 10 last year refused to register them, claiming that the issue was related to transitional justice and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was dealing with the cases and the petitioners had already registered their cases at the commission.

“Today [Friday] the division bench scrapped the decision of the Supreme Court administration not to register the petitions,” Bimal Poudel, the spokesperson of the Supreme Court, was quoted as saying by the Kathmandu Post newspaper.

With Friday’s decision of the division bench, the writ petitions will be registered on Sunday.

The rebellion that started on February 13, 1996 officially came to an end after a Comprehensive Peace Agreement was reached with then government on November 21, 2006.

The victims demanded the court take necessary legal action against Prachanda for the killings that he himself owned up to.

On January 15, 2020, while addressing a Maghi festival celebration event in Kathmandu, Prachanda said, as the leader of the Maoist party that led the decade-long insurgency, would take the responsibility for the deaths of 5,000 people and that the state should take responsibility for the remaining deaths.

“I am accused of killing 17,000 people, which is not true. However, I am ready to take the responsibility of killing 5,000 people during the conflict,” said Prachanda, adding that the rest of the 12,000 were killed by the feudal regime.

“If you entrust me with the responsibility of 5,000 killed, it is my moral obligation to own it. But it will do no justice for the 12,000 killed by state but also put on my head,'' he said at a public event last month.

“I cannot run away from it. But people can’t blame me for what I didn't do,” he said.

It is estimated that around 17,000 people lost their lives during the decade-long insurgency. Prachanda waged the armed conflict for a decade in the name of 'People's War'.

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