Nepal Maoists surrender arms as govt offers amnesty for war crimes

Nepal's governing former Maoist rebels have handed over their weapons to a multi-party committee tasked with overseeing the peace process, the BBC reports.

The move, which follows the swearing in of Maoist Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai on Monday, heralds a "major step towards completing Nepal's five-year-old peace process," the news channel said.

One of the largest stumbling blocks to the negotiations for a new constitution has been the Maoist army, whose possession of armaments meant that the state-in-flux essentially had two standing military forces, even though the civil war ended in 2006.

The BBC quoted press reports as saying that Maoist commanders based in various garrisons around the country – where the weapons are locked up beyond use – officially handed over them over to representatives of the special committee responsible for the management, integration and rehabilitation of former combatants.

But even as some observers cheered the progress toward a final peace agreement and a new constitution, human rights activists called for the new government to scrap a deal that offers amnesty for crimes committed by combatants during the 10-year insurrection.

"Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai of Nepal and his government should honor commitments, both by the government and by the Maoist party, to ensure that perpetrators of human rights abuses during and after the country’s armed conflict are held accountable before courts of law," Advocacy Forum, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of Jurists said in a press release issued Friday.

The human rights groups issued an open letter to the prime minister in reaction to a four-point agreement between the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, which now leads the government, and the United Democratic Madhesi Front, which represents a constituency from the southern plains, according to the release. The agreement calls for the withdrawal of criminal cases committed during the country’s armed conflict.

“We understand the need to forge consensus among the political parties to bring the peace process and constitution writing process to a satisfactory conclusion," the press release quoted Sam Zarifi, Asia director at Amnesty International, as saying. “However, this should not be done at the expense of justice and safeguarding the rights of Nepal’s people.”