Democracy For Nepal: Who Are Nepal's Martyrs?

The martyrs of Nepal's April Revolution 2006 are martyrs.
The martyrs of the Madhesi Kranti I are martyrs.
The martyrs of the Madhesi Kranti II are martyrs.
The martyrs of the Tharu Kranti are martyrs.

The people who died during the decade long civil war - 13,000 to active combat, twice that many to suicide resulting from that combat and social dislocation, over a thousand disappeared - are not martyrs. They are victims of political violence.

There is a difference.

The Maoists are not the authors of the magical April Revolution. The April Revolution was an ultimate example of a nonviolent revolution. The Maoists had been pushing to make even that revolution into a violent bloodbath.

Baburam Bhattarai May Not Preach Violence To The Seven Party Alliance (January 2006)

The Maoists were never right to have engaged in violence. Violence was always wrong. There are no ifs and buts about that. Why only the country as a whole, even the Maoists only started making political progress after they took a break from violence. Their unilateral ceasefire of the fall of 2005 was when they started turning around as a political force. And they have made steady progress since.

I feel the pain of the Maoists who died during the civil war, I feel the pain of the citizens who died, I feel the pain of the Nepal Army soldiers who died during that period. But all that pain has to be processed by establishing a Truth And Reconciliation Commission. That commission might even recommend monetary compensation for many of the victims of that civil war period, but any such proposal has to be discussed and passed by the parliament, not quietly and stealthily by a cabinet.

The idea that the 7,000 Maoists who died during the civil war are martyrs is a mistake, and it is to mete out disrespect to the legitimate martyrs of the four mass movements.

The Maoists as a party are free to enact a shrine in the name of those 7,000, but they don't get to lump those 7,000 with those tens who died during the four mass movements, and especially the April Revolution.

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Monday, April 13, 2009

Who Are Nepal's Martyrs?

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