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NAUBISE, Nepal, May 13 (Reuters) Five years ago on a warm August night loud thuds on the door altered Tirtha Kumari Bhujel's life forever.
''They came in, looked under the bed, in the courtyard, and then they found him,'' Bhujel said, recalling the storming of her home by armed men that fateful night. ''They blindfolded him, tied his hands and dragged him into a van.'' Ever since, the 51-year-old mother has not seen her son, who was among hundreds of civilians who went missing during a decade of Maoist civil war.
Human rights activists say both Nepal's army and Maoist rebels captured people on suspicion of being enemy informants or sympathisers, and many were tortured or killed.
The hopes of families of those missing have been rekindled after the Maoists emerged the largest party in last month's election and looked set to take power.
Exactly how many people remain missing is difficult to tell but, depending on who you ask, the figure varies from 600 to 6,000.
''We know about 1,100 missing people,'' said Sonu Pokharel, the general secretary of a group that calls itself the organisation of families of those made to disappear by the state.
''This figure is on the basis of people who came to us. Our estimate is that the real number is over five times more.'' Added to that are people kidnapped by Maoists who, the Red Cross says, did not account for about 100 of their prisoners. During the war, senior Maoist cadres admitted that informers were executed.
A truth and reconciliation commission was agreed upon after the war ended, but it is yet to be constituted. A specially formed Peace and Reconstruction Ministry has just announced compensation for the estimated 13,000 killed.
WAITING AND HOPING Human rights groups say the political momentum for the issue of the missing has been somewhat lost, but a lasting peace will never be realised if rights violations are not redressed.
''Just taking action against the Nepali army will reek of a witch-hunt,'' Human Rights Watch said in a report last month.
''Maoists must also ensure the prosecution of its own cadre who committed human-rights abuses.''
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