International Day of the Disappeared, 30 August - ICRC publishes names of more than 1200 missing persons in Nepal

TV news footage transmitted worldwide, 28 August 2008
APTN Global Video Wire at 12:15 GMT, replay 22.00 GMT and on
EBU Eurovision News Summary (ENS) at 11.45 GMT


Date, location: Jogimara, Dhading District, Nepal August 2007
Production: Jan Powell, Claire Doole, Mohan Mainali
Sound: English, Nepali
Copyright: ICRC – Access All
length: 9'11"
Please credit ICRC where possible

Preview extract: The missing in Nepal

For broadcast tapes and information on footage: Jan Powell, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva,

On International Day of the Disappeared (30 August 2008), the International Committee of the Red Cross is appealing to the government of Nepal to clarify the fate of those who went missing during the country's 10-year internal conflict. The ICRC and the Nepal Red Cross Society are publishing the names of more than 1200 people reported as missing by their relatives between 1996 and 2006.
The humanitarian organisation hopes by publishing the list, the fate of those missing will be clarified and the suffering and needs of the families will be publicly acknowledged.

The ICRC and Nepal Red Cross have been in touch with families of the missing since 1999. In February 2007, it published its first list of 812 names. As a result, 33 families learnt the fate of their loved ones. The most recent list is not exhaustive and only contains the names given by families who have contacted Red Cross representatives.

The ICRC is calling on the authorities to establish mechanisms to resolve the legal problems faced by the families of missing persons and to support them in overcoming their loss..

The Nepalese are not alone in suffering the agony of uncertainty when a relative disappears in conflict or violence. All over the world, hundreds of thousands of people are unaccounted for. The ICRC has received tracing requests from thousands of families in many countries including Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, the Russian Federation, Sri Lanka, Colombia, DR Congo, Liberia and more. Under international humanitarian law, the authorities are obliged to do everything possible to provide families with information about those who have disappeared. Through its work, the ICRC encourages states to make this a priority and to pass on information rapidly to families who otherwise find themselves stuck in a limbo of uncertainty.

Video story

Nepal's ten-year conflict, pitting the government against Maoist separatists, brought tragedy for many families. Thousands of people were killed or went missing without trace. More than one thousand people still have no information on the fate or whereabouts of their loved ones.

In the village of Jogimara in Dhading district, 17 men left their families in November 2001 to work at the airport construction site in Kalikot, western Nepal. None of them returned.

Nearly seven years on, their families are caught between hope and despair -- uncertain if their men are dead or will one day return. Rumours circulate about how their sons and husbands might have died, with some speculating they were shot by the army and others saying they were killed by aerial bombardment.

Shanka Bahadur Gurung lost two of his sons, Gokarna and Tak, in Kalikot. They were fit and healthy teenagers and Shanka struggles to believe that they are dead. His disbelief is shared by 15 other families who lost sons and husbands.

Sukmaya Chepang lost her husband Chitra. He was 61 and had gone to work at the airport in order to pay off some debts. She fears that he is dead but as she has never seen his body, she cannot fully accept that he is never going to come back.

Hope is all the families have left. They were struggling financially before their men went in search of work at the airport. They were never able to live off the land all the year round, but now without a main breadwinner, they face an even bleaker future. Some are so poor that they cannot afford the 60 US dollars it costs for a funeral service.

Others have completed their funeral rites due to cultural pressure. Without a funeral, the families are considered unclean and face discrimination when the time comes for other members of the family to be buried.

Life is particularly tough for the women left behind, often with young children and little financial means. If an elder brother dies, it is the custom that the widow marries her younger brother in law. Two women in the village have been persuaded by their families to follow in the tradition. But this practice does not solve the administrative and legal problems the women face. In Nepal, 12 years must pass before a person can be declared officially dead, leaving family members unable legally to inherit, sell property or remarry.

Gyan Bahadur lost two sons and a nephew in Kolikot. He stayed to tend his fields but his brother was so haunted by his loss that he sold his property and left the village.
He suspects his loved ones are dead but he is unable to mourn until he knows for sure.

Since 1999, the ICRC and Nepal Red Cross have been contacting the families of those who disappeared during Nepal's internal conflict and asking the parties to the conflict to clarify what happened to them. Under international law, the government has an obligation to inform all the families of the disappeared and to give them the status of 'families of the missing'. This official status gives them access to government aid programmes as well as to legal advice.

To mark the International Day of the Disappeared, the ICRC is publishing a list of more than 1200 people unaccounted for in Nepal. Amongst the names on the list are the 17 men from Jogimara who disappeared in November 2001.

The families say it is time that the authorities gave them answers about what exactly happened to their loved ones, compensated them for their loss and punished those responsible. Only then will the families from Jogimara and elsewhere in Nepal be able to move on with their lives.

SHOTLIST

00 00 Countryside Jogimara in Dhading District, Nepal
00 26 Children and villagers in Jogimara
00 38 Shankar Bahadur Gurung lighting fire and smoking
00 54 ITW Shankar Bahadur Gurung.( lost two sons)

"We did not see it with our eyes. It was said everyone was killed. Some say they are still in hiding. Others say they were lined up and shot by the army. Yet others say they were killed in an aerial bombardment. Nothing is clear".

01 28 Shankar and family
02 00 Sukmaya Chepang gathering and collecting wood
02 37 ITW Sukmaya Chepang (lost husband)

"Perhaps he will come. Perhaps he will come back with money. We are still hopeful".

02 49 Sukmaya in the fields
03 21 Funeral rites
03 41 ITW ITW Shanka Bahadur Gurung.( lost two sons)

"We were discriminated against when my sister died. People said we were impure because our sons had died. No one would accept water from us. They did not even let me touch her. We did the funeral rites because everyone else was doing it. It was with the heaviest heart that we did it."

04 12 Bereaved widows who have married their younger brother in laws working in the fields
05 07 Gyan Bahardur working in corn field
05 33 ITW Gyan Bahadur (lost two sons and a nephew)

"He wanted to go away from the fields his son had worked on. But what is he going to do with the plate his son used, the glass his son had drunk from. Throw everything away?"

05 57 Gyan with family washing clothes
06 31 Gyan ITW

"We know no one. We don't know where to go. We are illiterate. Doing nothing is even worse. It has been almost six years, but our wound is still raw. What can we do?

06 51 View of village
06 55 ICRC delegation visiting Sukmaya's family
07 25 ITW Jean Paul Corboz, ICRC protection coordinator (English)

"The government has the obligation by international law to all families, not only the families of Jogimara, but all the families who have disappeared during the war to inform them what happened and to recognise that those people died. It is what they need. They need clear recognition that something happened. "

07 46 Sukmaya's family
08 25 ITW Govinda Chepang (son of Sukmaya)

"We should be shown their bodies. The guilty should be punished. The dead cannot be brought back to life. But compensation should be provided."

08 42 women, children and babies from the village
09 11 END