• Photo, those who left for Kalikot were Jogimara’s poorest of the poor.
    • Those who left for Kalikot were Jogimara’s poorest of the poor.
      © ICRC / K. Kayastha / np-e-00211

    Bir Bahadur Chepang, father of the missing Bikas Chepang, has nine family members who go out to work in other people’s fields. Yet, every year the family has food to last only six months.

  • Photo, “No matter how much I cry, they are not coming back. All this crying, waiting, hoping, praying has turned my heart into stone.”
    • “No matter how much I cry, they are not coming back. All this crying, waiting, hoping, praying has turned my heart into stone.”
      © ICRC / K. Kayastha / np-e-00204

    Sankha Bahadur Gurung refused to perform funeral rites for his sons because he had not seen their bodies. When his sister died people started calling his family impure, relatives would not accept water from members of the Gurung household. He was prohibited from touching his own sister. “I performed the last rites for my sons with a very heavy heart. If I had not done it, my entire family would have been ostracized.”

  • Bishnu Chepang, father of Kumle Chepang, pictured with his grandchildren, tries hard so that Kumle’s children do not feel their father’s absence. Samita, the youngest, was still in her mother’s womb when Kumle disappeared. After more than six years of waiting, Bishnu has no idea how long he can continue hoping that his son will one day return.

  • Photo, for the relatives of those who went missing in Kotbada, the wounds are still fresh.

    “We can’t read or write,” they say, “we don’t know where to go, who to talk to, who to meet with so that something is done about our loved ones.”

    The ICRC is urging the authorities to clarify the fate and whereabouts of all those who went missing as a result of the conflict and to grant them an official status. Its head of delegation in Nepal said, “we are recommending that the government of Nepal grant those missing in Kotbada the status of missing persons. This will make their relatives eligible for government support, be it financial, psychological or legal.”


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