Nepal extends tenure of commission probing conflict abuses

The commission investigating deaths and abuses during Nepal's communist insurgency received a one-year extension Thursday after being unable to finish its work on thousands of claims and complaints collected from victims and their families.  The Truth and Reconciliation Commission received 58,052 claims and complaints since 2 commissions were established in 2015 - one to probe enforced disappearances and another to investigate more than  60,000 complaints of violations committed during the war.  More than 17,000 people are believed to have been killed in a decade of fighting between communist rebels and government troops before a United Nations-brokered peace deal ended the conflict in 2006.

It took years for the government to set up the commission, and even longer to establish the laws and regulations for it to function.  The government said in a statement that the decision to extend the commission's tenure was made at a Cabinet meeting Thursday.  The commission has so far only been able to collect the complaints, but it will likely take years to investigate the claims.  Survivors, victim's families, and activists said the extension was not enough. They said current legislation pertaining to war crimes must be amended as currently perpetrators can be granted amnesty.  (Source: AP, Reuters)