KATHMANDU, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Nepal's human rights commission said on Thursday it had found what may be a burial or cremation site of civilians who disappeared during the country's decade-long war against Maoist rebels.

A team, including representation from the United Nations' human rights agency, found half-burnt logs, partially buried pieces of clothes and plastic bags on a forested slope in the army-protected Shivapuri National Park, 15 km (10 miles) north of Kathmandu.

"People might have been killed somewhere else and buried or cremated here, or they might have been brought and killed here," said Gauri Pradhan, who visited the site as a member of the government's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

"This is a suspicious location," he added, without giving details.

The team did not dig or otherwise disturb the site, and no human remains have yet been found. Both NHRC and the Nepal wing of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) urged the government to seal off the site, preserve evidence and investigate.

"Failure to do so jeopardises the rights of victims to know the truth and to receive justice and reparation," OHCHR said in a statement.

Hundreds of civilians went missing during Nepal's anti-monarchy Maoist rebellion, which ended a year ago.

Human rights activists say both Maoist rebels and Nepal's army captured people on suspicion of being enemy informants or sympathisers, and some may have been tortured or even killed.

The NHRC said it was told about the site by relatives of some of the 49 people who disappeared from army barracks in Kathmandu in 2003, an incident the OHCHR had said needed investigation. It was not immediately known how the relatives learnt of the site.

An army spokesman was not available to comment. In the past, the military has said more than 100 Nepali soldiers and junior officers had been punished for human rights abuses committed while fighting the Maoists.

Nepal's multi-party government and the Maoist rebels signed a peace deal in November last year, formally ending the decade-long civil war against the Hindu monarchy.

More than 13,000 people were killed during the conflict and at least 200,000 were displaced. (Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Jonathan Allen)

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