--- Hopefully this wakes up some senses in the Maoists --
Maoists committing grave violations: UN chief
REPUBLICA
Maoist’s name featured alongside Taliban and al-Qaida
UN chief Ban recommends targeted measures against repeat violators
Violators have to realize that their crimes will not go unpunished: Coomaraswamy
KATHMANDU, April 24: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said the ruling Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is one of 56 parties committing grave violations against children.
Ban’s report released in New York on Thursday has featured UCPN (Maoist)’s name alongside the likes of the Taliban in Afghanistan and al-Qaida in Iraq, among other prominent armed groups operating in Sudan, Congo, Myanmar, Somalia, Chad, Burundi and Sri Lanka, among others.
The 15-member UN Security Council will carry out an open debate on the report, which has also enlisted Maoists in the list of 19 persistent violators, on April 29.
In order to halt violations and ensure greater protection of children in conflict situations, Secretary-General Ban has recommended targeted measures by the Security Council against repeat violators.
“Accountability for perpetrators will create a sense of justice for the victims and it will also have a deterrent effect. Persistent violators have to realize that their crimes will not remain unpunished,†a statement issued by the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) quoted Coomaraswamy as saying.
Secretary-General Ban has also mentioned about an unkept promise of Prime Minister and Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to release 2,973 children from the cantonments by the end of February 2009. PM Dahal had made the promise during his meeting with visiting Special Representative of Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, in December last year. There is no action yet on the release of the minors from Maoist cantonment sites.
The report covers compliance and progress in ending six grave violations against children: recruitment and use of children; killing and maiming of children; rape and other grave sexual violence; abductions; attacks on schools and hospitals; and denial of humanitarian access to children.
The 51-page report has also documents no progress on the death of Maina Sunar, a 15-year-old girl who died while in custody of the then Royal Nepal Army in 2004. “A case was filed and the district court issued a summons for the four army officers accused of intentional homicide to appear before the court. The four officers were all still at large at the time of reporting.â€
The report also notes that abductions, killings, explosions of improvised explosive devices and attacks on schools and teachers by armed groups in the Tarai region continued, with children making up a disproportionate number of the victims.
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