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KATHMANDU, March 2 (AFP) - Nepalese who have suffered at the hands of Maoist rebels or security forces on Sunday demanded a voice in upcoming peace talks.

"The two sides are now preparing for talks, but they don't represent the common people's agenda," said Pradip Nepal, a leftist activist who brought victims of the seven-year insurgency to Kathmandu to tell their stories.

"The government carries the king's agenda with total disregard for those who have been killed unlawfully and the Maoists have also not mentioned a single word about those who suffered," he said.

The Maoists and the government reached a ceasefire January 29 and are expected to shortly release a formal truce agreement that would the basis for peace talks.

Some 7,800 people have died in the insurrection, and thousands more have been injured or displaced.

"If the orphans' agenda doesn't become the chief agenda for these talks, the Nepalese people's quest for peace would remain a mere dream and cause a new round of bloodshed in the future," Nepal said.

Specifically, many victims want financial compensation for their suffering -- or at least an acknowledgement of the wrongs committed against them.

Alina Shrestha of Dhading, 60 kilometers (35 miles) west of Kathmandu, said the government has done nothing for her, even after her father was murdered.

"We were sleeping. A group of Maoists came to our house and took him away. The next day we found his dead body," said Shrestha, tears running down her cheeks.

Bishnu Rijal, of Dailekh in far western Nepal, said he has found little help since security personnel gang-raped and killed his sister last June.

"Our sorrow remains with us. Nobody says a single word of sympathy or consolation to people like us," added Krishna Prasad Oli, whose father was killed by Maoists last year in the western area of Myagdi.

"Who is there to compensate us for the psychological pain we undergo every second of our lives?" he asked.

Added Nepal: "To be killed for the 'people's war' may be attaining martyrdom for the Maoists, and the same may be true for security forces, but the deaths of innocent people in this war are barbaric."

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