ICRC presses Lanka

Dahal

on fate of 16K:

The International Red Cross Tuesday urged Sri Lanka on Tuesday to disclose the fate of more than 16,000 people still officially missing since the island’s ethnic war ended seven years ago.

The Geneva-based organisation released a 14-month survey conducted across Sri Lanka showing thousands of mainly ethnic Tamils were still searching for their loved ones.

The survey and resulting 34-page report titled “Living with Uncertainty” called on Sri Lankan authorities to “clarify the fate and whereabouts of missing persons”.

Of 395 families surveyed by the Red Cross, just over one third believed their loved ones were dead while another third were convinced they were still alive somewhere. The remaining third were unsure. (AFP)

eyes comeback

as PM:

The leader of Nepal’s former Maoist rebel movement looked set Monday for a comeback as prime minister after the main opposition party gave him its backing to head a new coalition.

A day after K.P. Sharma Oli quit as premier ahead of his likely defeat in a noconfidence motion, the Nepali Congress and the Maoists confirmed they were in talks on forming an administration led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

Better known by his nom de guerre Prachanda (Nepali for “the fierce one”), Dahal led a decade-long insurgency in which around 16,000 people lost their lives.

In 2006 he emerged from hiding to sign a peace deal with mainstream parties that paved the way for the abolition of the world’s last Hindu monarchy and his own rise to power via the ballot box. (AFP)