Nepal's human rights commission said yesterday it had found what may be a burial or cremation site of civilians who disappeared during the country's decade-long war against Maoist rebels.
A team, including representation from the UN human rights agency, found half-burned logs, partially buried pieces of clothes and plastic bags on a forested slope in the army-protected Shivapuri National Park, 15km north of Kathmandu.
"People might have been killed somewhere else and buried or cremated here, or they might have been brought and killed here," said Gauri Pradhan, who visited the site as a member of the government's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
"This is a suspicious location," he said, without giving details.
The team did not dig or otherwise disturb the site, and no human remains have yet been found. Both NHRC and the local branch of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) have urged the government to seal off the site, preserve evidence and investigate.
"Failure to do so jeopardizes the rights of victims to know the truth and to receive justice and reparation," OHCHR said in a statement.
Hundreds of civilians went missing during Nepal's Maoist rebellion, which ended a year ago. Human-rights activists say both Maoist rebels and Nepal's army captured people on suspicion of being enemy informants or sympathisers, and some may have been tortured or even killed.
The NHRC said it was told about the site by relatives of some of the 49 people who disappeared from army barracks in Kathmandu in 2003, an incident the OHCHR had said needed investigation.
An army spokesman was not available to comment. In the past, the military has said more than 100 Nepali soldiers and junior officers had been punished for human rights abuses committed while fighting the Maoists.
Meanwhile, police have arrested at least 110 members of armed minority groups in a crackdown aimed at curbing months of unrest in the south, officials said yesterday.
A sweep of the groups' hideouts began Dec. 1 in eight districts where tensions have persisted since early this year, the police headquarters in Kathmandu, said in a statement.
Minority groups have been organizing demonstrations, strikes and transportation shutdowns in southern Nepal to demand greater recognition of their rights. Many of these groups have armed members.
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