Finnish forensic experts who arrived in Kathmandu Monday on the request of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the OHCHR-Nepal have immediately given themselves to the works of discussing with Nepali experts and testing materials collected from the suspected cremation site of 49 people detained and allegedly killed by the army during the Maoist insurgency.

Professors Helena Ranta of the University of Helsinki and Pekka Saukko from the University of Turku started discussion with Nepali investigators over the sample materials collected from Shivapur National Park, Gauri Pradhan, member of the NHRC, told Nepalnews. He said that they would also visit the site for further study.

The forensic experts will stay for two weeks and work in close cooperation with a team of Nepali experts led by Dr Harihar Wasti that has been carrying out investigations at the site since it was located.

Asked if there are any chances for the forensic experts making any important discovery amidst concerns from rights bodies that evidences may have been trampled upon at the site, Pradhan only said that the NHRC was quite happy with the round-the-clock security arrangement made by the police to secure the site and that they had not received any complaint whatsoever regarding it.

The NHRC had in December found the site with half-burnt logs, partially buried pieces of clothes and plastic bags on a forested slope in the army-protected Shivapuri National Park at the outskirts of Kathmandu. The site is believed to be the burial or cremation site of about 49 Maoists made to disappear by the army during the conflict period. nepalnews.com ag Feb 05 08