NEPAL'S PAINFUL NEXUS

Nepal's victim despair despite new government's pledge over war crimes.

KATHMANDU : It was shortly before lunch on a January afternoon when rebels stormed a village school in the mountains of central Nepal -

Dragged Headmaster  Muktinath Adhikari from the classroom, tied him to a tree trunk, and shot him in the head.

Sixteen years on, the chilling photograph of a 45-year-old science teacher - slumped in front of the tree with his hands bound behind him - still haunts the Himalayan nation.

'' The government has no good intentions and doesn't want to address the plight of the victims,'' said Suman Adhikari, founder of the Conflict Victims Common Platform, a network of support groups for people affected by the violence.

''They simply want this situation to linger and keep victims and their families hopeful.''

Survivors, victims' families and rights groups say successive governments have hindered efforts to probe human rights violations committed during the war.

But a senior official from one of the main parties in the new government said any delays were nor deliberate, and cited other priorities such as adopting new constitution and rebuilding the country after a huge earthquake in 2015.

Wedged between India and China, Nepal - famed as the birthplace of Buddha, Nepal is also home to Mount Everest.

It is still reeling from the decade long conflict between Maoist rebels and the government forces that killed over 17,000 people.

The World Students Society will watch all future developments.