Some Basic Acts Of Co-Ordination

These are some of the emails from my Inbox over the past few days.

"_______. It’s good to hear from you. If you are planning to come to the west coast, please let me know. We will do whatever we can to help. You are doing a commendable job in these hard times. Keep up the spirit and keep working hard. We are behind you."

"Hi _______, _______, ______, and _______,

Pleased to make acquaintaince with you all (except ______) by email.

In order to start planning, I have the idea of a rough itinerary of DC to NYC to Ithaca, to
Boston, and back to DC. If we start on April 20 in DC, then we can have several days in each
city, except one night in Ithaca, and reach back to DC by about May 4.

We will also need to continue looking for funds - or at least raise some amount of funds at
some events. So far we have $500 from Cornell and potential $3500 grant to cover only
internal travel (not international airfar). I have to confirm the $3500 grant, which is from
Amnesty International. Need more to cover the Delhi-DC ticket.

As ________ suggested meeting Senator Kerry, I had also been thinking that this tour could
help galvanize a Nepal constituency among the Masachusetts Senators and Reps. We could
meet with their DC as well as Boston offices.

I think we will have no lack of events in any of the cities. We will have to choose which ones
could be most effective.

My mobile is _____________ for reference. I think I am acting as the lead coordinator on
this tour for the month of March at least, to line up the funding and the specific events.

We have an organization, Advocacy Project, based in DC, who have agreed to be the
501(c)(3) umbrella for this, and to accept donations and reimburse expenses. Also, since the
$3500 potential grant is from Amnesty International's Special Initiatives Fund, they may do
some accounting and reimbursing as well.

I am just trying to get a handle on everything - money and dates - and then will communicate
more in the next few days.

_______, I gather you're in DC. ______, I gather you're in Boston. __________, if you
have read this far, thank you and would you please tell me where you are located? I am in
Boston myself."

"Also, we (3 of us)  have sent an official request to meet with John Kerry. I will try to add
your name as well."

"_______,

Will be glad to welcome you to DC (make sure you wear that classic outfit of Daura/Suruwal). Also I found out that RNA has issued a red corner notice for me too as well over my speech on democracy day. I think they picked it from the nepalipost or some of their civilian outfitted military personnel present during the speech. Whatever the reason but time has come for us to kick monarchy's ass for good. I will try to set up sth at George Mason University or Mt. Everest Restaurant. Make sure you bring and excellent presentation material. I will also need them at some point here.

____, I heard that were headed to Singapore for a while from ___. When are you coming back?"

"______,

At present, I am outside mainland US for a conference.  I will be backm on Friday.  We can
work things out. I will respond in detail after I get back.

Best,
_______"

"______ and all,

lets come up with the schedule -  I will work on organizing a talk/documentary programme
here in Boston. Lets finalize this asap - so that we have time for publicity and all that. The
more people we can reach out to, the better it is going to be.

I am currently in Singapore but I will be back in the US end of next week.

My # is _________ if anyone needs to get hold of me for any reason...

- ______."

"__________, 

Thanks for the quick reply. Would like to use that time to discuss the formation of a new democrcatic alliance in Nepal - if the situation does not improve by then, and if the parties do not come up with a clear demorcatic republic agenda by then. We're seriously thinking about that right now. ........ .......

How you're getting the democracy allinace updates we've been sending.

By the way, where are you staying these days?

Will keep you posted if any further dvelopment.

_______"

"Hi ____, ______, ____ and _____,

____- There is no specific date that need to return to Delhi. I said two weeks as a rough estimate. Adding some more days for the trip does not really matter. I wrote to some of my friends in theast coast and they are replying. It appears that I will have no problem finding free accommodation for most of the trip. Could you please be in touch with _______ _______ (_______) and ____ ______(______). I have written to ___ ___ as well, and waiting for his reply.

I have no problem with World Vision. I do not know them very much in fact. Must be doing good, lets hope.

______ and _____ - Thanks for your quick reply! Could you be in tocuh with ____ (_______) . He's a long time friend of _______ and a well wisher of Nepal. He's with _________, and now in the US. ____, could you help organnize some meeting in Boston with our Nepali friends? I would also like to show a rough cut video documentary on the police brutalties against pro-democrcay demonstators recently as well as last year.

____- I am waiting for your response, man. Could you organize some meeting with Nepalis in DC? Where's ____? I would also like to contribute somethings to Nepali Post. Read your speech of Fagun saat. Good.

Keeo in touch,

_____"

"_____,

We are back in Boston now - have been for a year now. I will have no problem supporting in
any ways when you are in the Boston area or anywhere else for that matter. My place is
your place.

We are looking forward to your visit.

- ______."

"Dear _____, ______, ______, ______, _____, _____, ______ and ____,

I will most probably be coming to the US for a couple of weeks (20 April onwards) for a Nepal Human Rights Speaking Tour. Individual US citizens, long-time friends of Nepal, including ____ _____, ____, Advocacy Project people, Amnesty International US chapter etc., are trying to raise donations and organize the tour. They’ll cover the round-trip ticket, and some internal transport etc. The funding will be very basic. To reduce the costs, I told them that I will talk to my friends to see if they can organize free accommodation in different places using our SEBS and other networks. Also, if there are the possibilities of a few hundred dollars raised as donations to cover parts of the inter-city bus / train fair, etc.

I have said that I will finalize the details of the tour after I receive the response from you guys. Apart from meeting with Congressmen / Senators / State department officials and human rights groups, which other friends will organize, I am also interested to have meetings with Nepali groups and individuals who are willing to contribute to the democracy movement in Nepal. I would also be really interested to make presentations in universities. I guess, I will have to mostly organize the tour in the East coast, as I will first come to DC, travel to NY, Boston, etc. This I will need to finalize after your suggestions and the suggestions from the others involved. So, my questions are (a) can some of you coordinate among our friends and with a person called ____ in the US (I will pass on his e-mail and contact details next time) to see what our SEBS guys can help in terms of accommodations when the schedules are finalized, (b) can you coordinate with _____ to work out the schedules, organize some meetings / presentations, (c) can you also look at the possibility of raising some money for inter-city transport costs, etc.

The objectives of the tour as I have suggested to the organizers are a) to sensitize US policy makers (congressmen as well as state department officials at the Nepal / South Asia desk about the human rights situation and how it is likely to degenerate into a catastrophe, (b) to explain why we need to work at the political context to prevent further deterioration of human rights situation – e.g., bringing the army under civilian control, not strengthening the ambitious and autocrat king further, focusing only on democracy without complicating its future course by making it compulsory to co-exist with an unwilling "constitutional monarchy", the prospects of ad hoc tribunals for the (c) to request media persons to focus more on Nepal, (d) update friends of Nepal on the situation on the ground in Nepal and in India, and (e) discuss mechanisms with the Nepalis in the USA whereby they can contribute more systematically to the movement for democracy in Nepal.

As some of you may know and others may not, I am now in Delhi – fled from Kathmandu on the 10^th Feb. The army and the police were on the lookout for me desperately. I, along with two lawyers, who worked as Nepal researchers for Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, were reportedly on the hit list of the RNA since December. And we fled to Delhi in mid-December, stayed for about a month, and went back after Kofi Annan issued statement expressing grave concern over threats to human rights defenders, almost all the ambassadors got together and complained to the RNA, etc. We thought the situation had improved when we went back. But then came the coup. And you know what is happening after that.

Between 1-10 Feb, we worked hard to issue joint statements denouncing the coup, established underground information network and started e-bulletin when everything was blacked out, using the satellite phones and embassy / UN facilities in Kathmandu. I also gave out public interviews to BBC world, AFP etc after they declared speaking against the coup a crime. So, they were pissed off with me, apparently. Understandable. They came to _______ for at least 5 times asking my whereabouts, and then we stopped counting. Fled to Delhi.

Here, we’re pretty active. Holding meetings with the political party leaders, the good ones among the crowd who made it to Delhi. We are pushing for them to work on detailed future agenda rather than just engaging on the politics of criticism. Have got a lot of support from the younger generations, including student leaders. Most of them will be going back to Nepal soon to coordinate and take part in the movement. Support from political parties for democracy is almost total. Their mood informally is very republican. Even BJP took a different stand from VHP – reportedly Advani told Sarad Chandra Shah a couple of days ago that they support the king but only if he is willing to remain constitutional, and told that VHP support is not BJP support, the VHP being more radical. The media here is in total support of democracy. We are in very close coordination with columnists and journalists.

I personally have no plans to get back to Nepal right now. Work whatever I can from Delhi and other Indian towns. We are trying to establish information points and mechanisms in the border towns, all around Nepal, trying to set up a Nepali weekly and monthly which we hope can be smuggled to Nepal and are mobilizing international opinion against dictatorship, in whatever little ways we can.

I hope you will get back to me soon. And also please suggest who else can be of help.

Cheers. We’ll get through!

_______"

Human Rights ----> Political Platform ----> Full-Fledged Movement

I believe those are the three phases through which we democrats will have to take our campaign to counter 2/1. External help will be sought as much as possible, but we will have to prepare for the fact that ultimately democracy will have to be earned, it will not be a gift from the foreign powers.

Human Rights

Even if we are to take the king on his word, that he has the best interests of the Nepalis in mind, he has no excuse whatsoever not to restore all fundamental rights. The first step is to do with human rights. Human rights activists need to be released immediately, the regime should pledge its support to the universal standards of where the line has to be drawn as to the use of force by the army against the civilians, and mechanisms ought be established to monitor progress or lack thereof. Human rights abuses up to and including crimes against humanity can not be allowed to be offered as "perks" to the foot soldiers of the Royal Nepali Army for their allegiance to the regime, as has been the case thus far. This is the most basic Common Minimum Program around which we can hope to rally absolutely any human being on earth.

The Human Rights Accord between the army and the Maoists that was in the works has to be revived, for that could be the best first step to a possible negotiated settlement.

Political Platform

Democracy is cacophony. That is what it is when it is working. Unlike the monotone of the Maoists and the Monarchists, we democrats will see plenty of divergent views along the way as we tread this difficult path. It is that cacophony that the Monarchists have labelled as disunity among the democratic ranks or, worse, instability.

We need to cast our net far and wide and engage in a broad discussion. The castigations that have been launched against the democratic experiment of the 1990s have to be answered. When you do not throw back rebuttals, people tend to believe the lies. We have got to hit back.

There has to be a lot of reflection. The more people that we involve in the debate the better. For, ultimately, democracy has to be understood at the grassroots.

But at this critical hour, the goal has to be to create a Political Platform. We need to come up with a Common Minimum Program that can bring all democrats together. We will not do away with all our internal differences, and neither should we, but we have got to realize a strong unity has to be forged.

Democracy is a simple concept: it is one person one vote.

Full-Fledged Movement

As they say, expect the best, prepare for the worst. Let's assume King G and his brats will stay the course. They will not restore the fundamental rights. They will take the country into a deeper and deeper civil war. Let's assume the king means it when he says three years. Let's assume he means to stay on longer.

I stand on the side of making full use of the fact that we live in the era of globalization and the internet.

• Organize the Nepali democrats all over the world under the Common Minimum Program. But primarily so in the US and in India. The US will be a great place to do things like fund-raising, and lobby the US Congress and the UN. India is where the penultimate action can be. I propose we form a "ring" around Nepal along the Nepal-India border.
  
• Co-ordinate massive, peaceful protests within the country.
  

And we need to galvanize global support as much as possible, to escalate in stages.

• An end to military aid. India and UK have already obliged. Pressure the US to do the same.
• An end to all aid of all kinds from all sources.
  
• Economic sanctions on the country, imposed primarily by India, but also by others.
• Give about a month or two each to steps 1, 2 and 3. And if the regime still does not budge, consider requesting Indian military intervention, like US in Haiti. You offer a no-return ticket out of the country to the king and the army top brass. If they do not oblige, you go in, depose the king and the top brass, and install a democratic government that offers unconditional peace talks and a Constituent Assembly. If the Maoists do not oblige, the army, under control of the democratic government, functioning within a democratic framework where all citizens enjoy all basic rights, is led to conduct surgical operations to decapitate the Maoist organization by hunting down the Maoist leadership, be they in India or Nepal, with active help from India.
  
• Hopefully that leads to peace, a Constituent Assembly, a new constitution, new parliamentary elections, and a new democratic government.
  

You can not kill democracy in the name of wanting to save it, you can not design a human rights disaster and claim to be for democracy. This regime has to be seen for what it is.