New Nepal minister accused in civil war killing

A Maoist leader in Nepal accused of ordering a man's death during the country's civil war has been appointed as a government minister, provoking sharp criticism from the United Nations on Thursday. Agni Sapkota, who was among seven new Maoist ministers, denies any involvement in the death of Arjun Bahadur Lama, who witnesses say was abducted from his village in 2005 by Maoist insurgents and later killed. But his appointment as information minister is certain to cause controversy in Nepal, which is still struggling to recover from the decade-long conflict between Maoist rebels and the state in which at least 16,000 people died. The United Nations condemned the appointment as "insult to those victims of human rights violations who have been waiting for justice for years." "The decision reinforces the culture of impunity in Nepal," said Jyoti Sanghera, Nepal head of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. After the war ended in 2006, Nepal's Supreme Court ordered local police to register a murder case against Sapkota and five others over the death of Lama, a school administrator, but none of the accused has ever been brought to trial. Human Rights Watch has urged Nepalese authorities to investigate his alleged involvement in the killing, one of thousands involving civilians who disappeared during the conflict and whose fate has never been investigated. "The incident occurred in the district where I was regional head, so some local human rights activists are blaming me," Sapkota told AFP. "I was not involved in the killing, neither did I give any orders to do anything to Arjun Lama. The charges against me are fictitious and politically motivated." The Maoists won the highest number of seats in elections held in 2008, but not enough to govern alone, and are now part of a coalition run by Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal's United Marxist Leninist party. Maoist party spokesman Dinanath Sharma said the new cabinet would focus on completing the peace process, which includes the long-awaited integration of the Maoist People's Liberation Army with the national force, and writing a new national constitution. The Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, which represents the ethnic minority that inhabits Nepal's restive southern region near the border with India, also joined the government. Its leader, Upendra Yadav, was named deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs.