KATMANDU, 16 January (IRIN) - As Maoist leaders join the Nepalese parliament after their decade-long armed rebellion, the numbers of internally displaced people remains one of the biggest humanitarian concerns, said aid workers.

The armed conflict between the Maoist rebels and government forces resulted in the deaths of more than 14,000 people and the internal displacement of up to 200,000, according to local aid organisations. The conflict severely affected the humanitarian activities in a country where about 31 percent of people still survive on less than US$1 a day.

The human rights situation had severely deteriorated, with extrajudicial killings and illegal detentions by the security forces and brutal executions and abductions of adults and children by the Maoists, according to the country's most prominent human rights group, INSEC.

In November 2006, the Maoists and interim government of seven national parties signed a historic peace deal to end the conflict.

"We are watching closely how the situation will improve as the peace process has only begun and the Maoists joined the parliament only yesterday," said rights activist Kundan Aryal from INSEC. He added that one could not say there was complete security, even though there were no armed encounters or abductions and disarmament had begun.

Aryal said victims of past human rights violations and internally displaced families had yet to see justice or be resettled in their home villages. Thousands of families are still searching for their relatives who disappeared following their abduction or illegal detention by the Maoists or the state.

"We are all anticipating and hoping for an improvement in the situation given the current changes," said Paul Handley, humanitarian affairs officer with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Nepal. He added that development and humanitarian agencies were still having problems. Maoists were still preventing or blocking access to development organisations, including the local and international aid agencies and the UN.

Nepal has always been considered at the emergency threshold. For example, the level of malnutrition among five-year-olds is as high as 20 percent in some districts and there were concerns over high child and maternal mortality rates.

Local health and development workers also say humanitarian work is still difficult for the government. During the conflict, the Maoists had destroyed much infrastructure, said Handley.

"Now we are hopeful that all service providers from the state, especially related to reproductive health, will be able to expand services in this new space," said Handley.

Besides health concerns, there are also issues of food insecurity, especially in Nepal's mountainous regions. OCHA will soon be releasing an agricultural crop and food security survey with the help of the World Food Programme and Food and Agricultural Organisation. This will show that there are major food security problems and the government has already requested assistance.

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