Hundreds still missing after Nepal war - Red Cross

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal's new government must investigate the fate of hundreds of people still missing in Nepal despite the end of a civil war with Maoist rebels, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday.

A 2006 peace deal between the government and the Maoists ended a decade-long conflict against the monarchy and the former rebels are now heading a coalition government after their surprise victory in a constituent assembly election in April.

During the war, which caused more than 13,000 deaths since 1996, both government troops and the rebels were accused by rights groups of human rights abuses including killings, arbitrary arrests and kidnappings.

Mary Werntz, head of the Red Cross delegation in Nepal, said at least 1,227 families had sought the help of the Geneva-based agency for information about their loved ones.

"They face the ongoing pain of not knowing if their loved one is dead or alive and, if dead, in which circumstances he or she died," Werntz told reporters on the eve of Saturday's International Day of the Disappeared.

"This information they need in order to complete their process of mourning their lost loved ones," she said adding that the information was also required to complete legal and social formalities such as inheritance of property.

"Under international humanitarian law, the authorities are obliged to do everything possible to provide families with answers that will end this agony of uncertainty."

The government and the Maoists agreed in their peace deal to set up a commission to look for information about those missing during the war, but no such body has yet been set up.

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