Red Cross presses Nepal for panel on missing

KATHMANDU, Aug 29 (Reuters) Nepal's multi-party government must keep a promise to set up a panel to find information about hundreds of people missing in a decade-long Maoist civil war, the International Committee of the Red Cross said today.

The government and the Maoists signed a peace deal in November and agreed to set up a commission to trace the whereabouts of people who disappeared during the war that started in 1996, but no such panel has yet been formed.

Mary Werntz, head of the Red Cross delegation in Nepal, urged the government -- that now includes the Maoists -- to set up a credible commission.

''The commission should have a very strong legal base and be independent,'' Werntz told reporters ahead of tomorrow's International Day for the Disappeared.

''The families should have access to the commission,'' she said.

''It should be obliged to listen to the needs of the families.'' The Red Cross says at least 1,042 people went missing throughout Nepal during the war that ended last year -- a conflict which killed more than 13,000 people.

Werntz said the real number could be much higher as more families who did not dare to come out openly earlier are now doing so.

Nepal's army, police and the Maoist former rebels were accused by human rights groups of frequent human rights violations including killings, kidnappings, torturing and enforced disappearances.

REUTERS SY RAI2024