NEPAL: Squeezed to Death Between King and Rebels

By Marty Logan Reprint | | Print |

Marty Logan

KATHMANDU, Jan 10 2006 (IPS) - A month before a contentious election, Maoist rebels in western Nepal have resumed bombing and killing, the king is campaigning in the east and caught between these two warring forces are ordinary Nepalis bled dry by a decade of civil strife.

The body count is said to be at least 12,000 people in an uprising that will mark its 10th year Feb. 13, five days after planned local elections that appear to have little to do with getting this badly broken nation running normally again and everything to do with flexing political muscle.

King Gyanendra, who runs a handpicked council of ministers, after firing his last appointed prime minister on Feb. 1, has vowed to hold the vote, no matter that seven political parties that took more than 90 percent of ballots in the last parliamentary polls will boycott it.

The parties also say they will “blacklist” anyone who tries to cast a vote, while the Maoists let their guns do talking since ending a unilateral ceasefire Jan. 3, gunning down soldiers and police, bombing government offices and looting banks.

“There’s such insecurity that you can’t even move confidently and securely from your home to your office and back. Parents are very much concerned about their young children, if they’ll come home OK. People even fear keeping boarders in their houses,” says Bhikku Ananada, a Buddhist monk in the capital Kathmandu, home to more than two million people.

With army and police headquarters based here, residents rarely have to deal with Maoist attacks. But in recent days many have been stuck in long queues to buy cylinders of cooking gas, and last week the Nepal Electricity Authority started “load-shedding”, cutting power for a few hours in the morning and evening one or two days a week because demand in this winter season far outstrips supply.

Such hassles are nothing compared to life for average Nepalis living in the country’s villages squeezed between Maoist rebels – who repeatedly demand food and money – and soldiers – who punish villagers for handing it over.

Tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands have fled their homes for the security of district centres or the country’s few cities, where the lucky ones move in with friends or relatives while others live in makeshift huts or on the street.

Youths in Nepal’s Far Western Region started heading to neighbouring India right after the Maoists ended their unilateral ceasefire Jan. 3. “There is no certainty what will happen in the village, so we are leaving,” said Gore Luhar from Doti district, who was travelling with nine others, reported the daily ‘Kathmandu Post’ on Monday.

Sixty-one young people have left Doti behind and others are preparing to follow, it added.

Nepal’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said in December that Maoists kidnapped 5,606 civilians during their three-month unilateral ceasefire from Sep. 3 to Dec. 3, most to attend “education” meetings. During that period, security forces killed 22 people while the rebels killed four, it added. Before Sep. 3, an average 10 people were killed in the conflict daily.

In December, the Maoists, who launched their war from the neglected mid- Western hills to erase the monarchy and establish a society that would end oppression against women, Dalits (so-called “untouchables”) and indigenous people, vowed “people’s action” (a code for violence) against those running in the election.

That campaign was set to start Jan. 26 but the rebels unleashed their arms immediately after the one-month extension of their ceasefire ended Jan. 3. Since then they have attacked troops and police guarding the important airport in mid western Nepalganj, killing three police officers, detonated numerous bombs in the tourist town of Pokhara, injuring soldiers and civilians, attacked a police post, various government offices and sacked banks.

“It’s going to get worse,” predicts Yadav Kant Silwal, former secretary- general of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). He blames the current situation on a “crude feudalism” exploited by King Gyanendra that inhibits the majority of the people from challenging the hereditary monarch.

According to the 1991 census, more than 45 percent of Nepalis are illiterate. About half of the people survive on less than one dollar a day.

Hopes of peace rose in November, when Maoist and political party leaders finally signed a 12-point understanding to cooperate on a common political agenda that would lead to elections to a constituent assembly that would draft a new constitution.

But spirits slumped again when the king dismissed the deal and the Maoists’ three-month ceasefire. After they extended it, the Royal Nepali Army launched one of its largest operations yet against the rebels, who are said to control up to 75 percent of rural Nepal with local “people’s governments” that tax residents and visitors.

Today, nearly everyone is predicting more bloodshed as the election nears. The political parties have vowed to bring hundreds of thousands of supporters from across the country to the streets of Kathmandu on Jan. 20 for a pro-democracy show of force and their leaders are now rallying activists in the villages.

“People have never been more aware of their rights,” says Arzu Rana Deuba, a researcher who headed a recent project that looked at how the conflict has affected villagers. “People are paying more attention to the news, they’re more aware of human rights. There’s more appreciation of democracy, security, freedom and peace.”