Kathmandu, 16 January 2023
Family members and relatives of late Muktinath Adhikari and activists are commemorating the 21st anniversary of his brutal killing without a trace of any truth and justice even as four sets of people’s representatives have been elected since the start of the peace process in Nepal in November 2006.
Adhikari was brutally murdered by the then CPN (Maoist) cadres in Lamjung on 16 January 2002 allegedly for refusing to pay donations. A group of Maoist cadres had abducted him from the classroom in blindfold, taken to a nearby hillock, tied to a tree and then killed by stabbing and shooting in his head. He was serving as the Principal at Panini Sanskrit School in Duradanda and also the coordinator of a local group of Amnesty International Nepal in Lamjung.
The Adhikari family have since knocked all the available doors for justice in Nepal but to no avail. The complaints registered at the regular justice mechanism – the police, the National Human Rights Commission, and the transitional justice body – the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), remain without any action much to the family’s chagrin.
“It’s deeply disappointing that the Supreme Court’s order to amend the law on Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission on Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) remains ignored for seven years and that not a single case is resolved by the TRC and CIEDP despite two sets of commissioners served for over six years,” Suman Adhikari, the son of late Adhikari said. “It’s both painful and shameful that the victims continue to suffer without truth, justice and reparations for years.”
At a time when it was not easy to freely express, let alone speak out one’s differing view points, Muktinath Adhikari stood out against injustice and violence including by inculcating human rights principles and values in the minds of his students he taught.
“Adhikari was one of the active and valuable members of the Amnesty movement in Nepal, and we continue to not only denounce but also to take his killing personally as a vicious attack against what human rights defenders do – the defense of human rights,” Nirajan Thapaliya, director of Amnesty International Nepal, said. “As we mourn the brutal killing of late Adhikari twenty one years ago today, our resolve for standing up and speaking out against all forms of violence and injustice gets even more resolute.”
The brutal murder of Muktinath Adhikari is one of the emblematic cases among several thousand human rights violations committed by both the state and the insurgent group during the conflict. The victims and activists have long been consistently calling out for speedy resolution of the unfinished agenda of truth, justice and reparations which remains stalled even after 17 years of the end of the conflict.
A memorial and interaction programme being held in honor of Muktinath Adhikari
On the occasion of the 21st anniversary of the heinous crime and in honor of late Muktinath Adhikari, two organizations – Muktinath Adhikari Memorial Foundation and Amnesty International Nepal – are organizing a memorial programme on 17 January 2023 between 1:30 to 4:00 pm at the Alfa Beta Complex in Kathmandu. The memorial programme will be be attended by the members of the Adhikari family, relatives, activists, newly elected people’s representatives and political leaders from different parties, journalists, and civil society members. In the programme, tributes will be paid to late Adhikari in memory of his social service and human rights activism. Then will follow an interactive session entitled “दशकौँदेखि उपेक्षित द्वन्द्व पीडितहरूको सत्य, न्याय र परिपूरणको अधिकार: नयाँ संसद्को भूमिका र जिम्मेवारी”(Right to Truth, Justice and Reparations of the Conflict Victims Overlooked for Decades: the Role and Responsibility of the New Parliament) ” where members of the House of representatives Gagan Kumar Thapa, Raghuji Pant, Santosh Pariyar, Maina Karki among others are expected to make their commitments towards how the new parliament will steer the issue of transitional justice in Nepal.