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Nepal’s Ex-Maoist Child Soldier Shares Plight of His 3,000 Peers

About 3,000 former child soldiers in Nepal remain jobless.
Vishal Arora
Nepal’s Ex-Maoist Child Soldier Shares Plight of His 3,000 Peers
Now 27, Bista is still fighting, now democratically and without arms, to demand justice for his peers, which include a few hundred women. All the ex-child soldiers must be given employment opportunities, he says in this video, shot in Kathmandu, where he now resides.
The use of child soldiers constitutes a war crime, Bista stresses as he speaks to The Diplomat. As the leader of this ongoing struggle for justice, he has paid a heavy price. He was kidnapped and jailed, but continues to raise his voice on behalf of the others, who, like him, are still awaiting employment.
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Authors
Vishal Arora
Contributing Author

Vishal Arora


Vishal Arora is a New Delhi-based journalist who writes, and produces video features, on politics, culture, religion, foreign affairs and human rights in South and Southeast Asia.

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Lenin Bista from Kavrepalanchok district was recruited as a child soldier in 2002 when he was 12 years old. He served the Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist’s ‘People’s War’ for seven years before the peace process started in November 2006. During the verification for integration into the Nepal Army by the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), Bista along with other 2,973 child soldiers were declared unfit and incapable. Since then, Bista has been leading the Discharged People’s Liberation Army Struggle Committee along with his friends demanding the fair treatment of the discharged child soldiers and remove the label of ‘unqualified’ given during the integration process. They have been further demanding rehabilitation of those child soldiers who are adult now with financial support and a dignified recognition for serving the liberation of people during the war. Despite various attempts of several Maoist's splinters to obstruct their movement, Bista and his colleagues have bee...

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