The Brussels-based conflict resolution organisation, International Crisis Group (ICG), has said the government's plans to set up village militia risks escalating the conflict.

The government has denied it has already started distributing weapons to volunteer 'peace committees', but says such a force will allow locals to resist the Maoists and deter violence. Not so, says the ICG, which argues that militia are likely to become "an untrained, unaccountable and undisciplined armed group".

Human rights groups have argued that the civil militia will make villagers a party to the conflict by destroying their neutrality. ICG says experience from other countries show that it will lead to a rise in human rights violations. As example of things to come, the group gives the example of the village of Sudama where locals have been armed. On 4 Feburary, the village was attacked by a large number of Maoists. Although the attack was repelled without any reported injuries to civilians, it appears that the village was targeted because of its reputation as a pilot location for the militia program.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International condemned the murder in Kathmandu this week of Ganesh Chiluwal, head of the Maoist Victims' Association (MVA). "Such killings of civilians are in contravention of international humanitarian law, which promotes respect for civilians and prohibits reprisals and summary executions of those not actively engaged in the conflict," the group said. Political parties and the National Human Rights Commission have also condemned the murder.