Children of missing journalists ask - 'Why were our dad's murderers not punished?'

Kathmandu – Basanta Roka Magar of Rolpa was a mere toddler when his father was forced into disappearance during the time of the Maoist conflict. Now he is 20 years old and wants to know his dad's status. Basanta also wishes someone helps him find the whereabouts of his missing father. 

"My dad was abducted and then disappeared. Later it was said that he was killed. I hope somebody finds out his status and helps track his whereabouts," Basanta said when this scribe caught up with him in Libang, the headquarters of Rolpa district which was the epicentre of the conflict. 

Basanta's dad, Dhan Bahadur Rokaya Magar was a news reader at the Radio Nepal's Surkhet regional broadcasting station. He used to read news in the Khammagar language. He was abducted by the then CPN Maoist on August 4, 2002 from Jaluke of Pyuthan district when returning to his work station in Surkhet after meeting his family in Libang. 

What the Rokamagar family heard six months after Dhan Bahadur's abduction was that he had been killed. But the family neither have seen his body nor the place where he was killed even to this date. It is 16 years since Dhan Bahadur was kidnapped and forced to disappear. 

"We asked him not to leave home that day and instead leave the next day. But he insisted and left. We heard that he was abducted on the way to Surkhet where his office is located. And then after six or seven months we heard that he was killed," said Kushti Rokka Magar, Dhan Bahadur's mother, sobbing. 

Dhan Bahadur's spouse wants to know when and where her husband was killed, how he got killed and whether his body was buried or cremated. 

Journalist J P Joshi's daughter is now 13 years old and lives with her mother and sister at Malikatol of Godavari Municipality in Kailali district. She was also a tiny tot when her father JP was killed. 

She misses her father very much when at school her friends talk about their fathers doing this or that or buying them gifts and clothes. 

"Some of my friends give presents to their father on Father's Day. Sometimes my friends' parents come to the school together to pay a visit to them. Programmes are organised at school on special occasions and friends talk of their fathers. When I hear them talk about their father, I also think if only my father was there among us in the family," she said. 

Joshi worked as the correspondent for the Janadesh and Janadisha weeklies. He went missing all of a sudden on October 8, 2008. A skeleton said to be that of Joshi's and his identity card were found inside a forest on November 28, 2008. Joshi was also the president of the Revolutionary Journalists Association, Kailali district chapter at that time. 

Immediately after the incident, Basanti Joshi, journalist Joshi's wife, filed a complaint to the police against their neighbour Lokendra Rawat and his younger brother Karan Rawat, confirming their involvement in Joshi's abduction. The Rawat brothers were arrested. But later they got clean chit from the District Court, Kailali citing lack of evidence against them. 

Basanta and Joshi's daughter, who lost their fathers, are overwhelmed by the common question: What wrong had our fathers done and were killed? But there is no one to answer this question. The accused in both the incidents have not been booked or punished. Both Basanta and this girl want to know why the guilty in their fathers' killing not booked. 

The above two incidents are only representative of more than a dozen such cases dating back to the time of the Maoist armed conflict. 

Freedom Forum, an NGO advocating for promotion of human rights, press freedom and Right to Information, has made a research-based documentary on some selected similar cases of journalists made to disappear to highlight the present status of these cases. 

The documentary released on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day, presents detailed studies about 11 cases. The FF said that it would continue study on such cases and warn the government for safety of journalists in the future as well. 

The documentary revolves around the case study of Magar, Joshi, Prakash Thakuri, Nawaraj Sharma of Kalikot, Krishnasen Ichhuk of Kathmandu, Dekendra Thapa of Dailekh, Uma Singh of Dhanusha and Ganesh Chaudhary of Mahottari. 

Not only journalists, but also media entrepreneurs have been killed in Nepal during the time of the conflict. The document presents the details about Channel Nepal and Space Time Network Chair Jamim Shah who was murdered in February, 2010. The short film has given space to the study about the killings of Jankpur-based Janakpur Today Communications Group Chair Arun Singhaniya and Radio Tulsipur's chair Devi Prasad Dhital. 

According to FF, court procedures over some of the cases have begun. 
The data shows that during the decade long armed conflict (1996-2006), a total of 14 journalists were killed by both the rebel and state sides. Some had been forced disappeared. Killing and forced disappearance of journalists continue to take place to date as well. 

The FF report states that 23 journalists were in killed in the past two decades in Nepal. Three are still missing. FF chief executive Taranath Dahal views that the lack of initiation on the part of the State for probing such incidents, finding guilty and brining them to book has promoted impunity in the country. 

Families of journalists killed and vanished during the armed conflict and post-conflict transition period have been deprived of legal treatment/remedy/justice. 

Senior media person Kanakmani Dixit says he personally believes that the culture of risk-zone reporting could not flourish in Nepal because of such inhumane treatments that journalists suffered during the conflict. 
In opinion of General Secretary of Federation of Nepali Journalists, Bipul Pokhrel, failure to bring guilty in such cases to book has promoted impunity in the country. 

Journalism is a pillar of democracy and it presents the real picture of the society, reports good and wrong deeds to the public and warns against wrong acts. It is one of the basic tools of keeping the people well informed. But atmosphere is yet to be created in Nepal in which journalists can work independently and without any fear. 
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