| Press Release
29 August, 2011
Nepal: families of the missing still
torn between hope and despair
Kathmandu (ICRC/Nepal Red Cross Society) – The International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Nepal Red
Cross Society published today – the International Day
of the Disappeared – the names of 1,383 people who went
missing during Nepal's 10-year internal armed conflict
(1996-2006).
"The primary aim of publishing these names is
to acknowledge the suffering of 1,383 families in Nepal
and to draw attention to their need to find out what
happened to their missing relatives," said Laure
Schneeberger, the deputy head of the ICRC delegation
in Kathmandu. "It has become urgent that the authorities
in Nepal create a mechanism that will provide answers
for the families of missing persons so they can get
on with their lives and begin the process of mourning
and reconciliation."
Torn between hope and despair, the families struggle
on a daily basis with the ambiguity of their loss and
a host of other problems.
Under international humanitarian law, the authorities
are required to take all feasible measures to account
for people who went missing, and to give families all
the information they obtain.
The publication, entitled "The missing persons
in Nepal: the right to know", is the fourth of
its kind since 2007 and provides an updated list of
persons still missing.
The ICRC and the Nepal Red Cross work closely with
several other organizations and with the Ministry of
Peace and Reconstruction to meet the economic, psychological,
social and legal needs of thousands of relatives of
missing persons.
"We hope that this publication will also help
ensure that all families of missing persons can benefit
from government programmes supporting the victims of
conflict," said Sanjeev Thapa, the chairperson
of the Nepal Red Cross Society.
"The missing persons in Nepal: the right to know"
can be consulted on the ICRC and Nepal Red Cross websites.
Hard copies are available in Nepal Red Cross offices
and in ICRC offices in Nepal.
Click
here for Press release in Nepali.
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