Human Rights Day on 10 December this year focussed national attention on the growing problem of disappearances of Nepalis in the Maoist conflict. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) used the 55th International Human Rights Day to publish a list of 709 persons reported missing in the past eight years. Two hundred in that list are said to have been disappeared by the Maoists, and the fate of the rest, who were arrested by the security forces, is unknown.

"More and more people are disappearing after they are held captive by both sides," Sushil Pyakurel of the NHRC told us. "That is why our slogan this human rights day was 'Disappearances of people: a challenge'." Some people on the list have been missing for as long as eight years, like Menash Pokhrel from Rautahat who has been missing since 1995. A majority of the disappeared are from Bardia, Bara and other Maoist strongholds. Some of the more resent have disappeared from Kathmandu.

Human rights experts say the main problem is that the government has detained people without filing cases against them. "No legal procedure is adopted after such arrests are made," says Krishna Pahadi of Human Rights and Peace Society. "People are simply detained and they disappear, leading to speculation that may have been executed." The crisis has become so serious that the government is under increasing pressure to invite experts from the United Nations to monitor the human rights situation in the country. NHRC has repeatedly made this demand and has won the solidarity of seven international agencies, including Amnesty International.

The government, however, has said a flat no. Instead it has formed a parallel Human Rights Promotion Centre at the prime minister's office which is seen as a move to counter what is seen as the NHRC's increasingly critical stance against disappearances by the security forces. But government officials there say the new body will implement recommendations made by the NHRC.