Rights groups slam Nepal for failure

Rights groups have criticised Nepal for failing to prosecute wartime rights abuses, saying the government appeared more interested in protecting perpetrators than ensuring justice.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists said in a statement Tuesday the government had deliberately hamstrung two commissions tasked with probing crimes committed during the country's brutal 10-year civil war by failing to allocate adequate funds and manpower.

Nepal established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons in 2015 -- nine years after the end of the conflict -- to investigate abuses by both sides in the conflict between Maoist rebels and the state.

But they have been widely criticised as toothless and there have been only two convictions, one for the brutal killing of a teenage girl by soldiers and another for the killing of a journalist by Maoist rebels.