Thursday, May 12, 2005

Madhesi Rights: Abhi Nahin To Kabhi Nahin


I feel the Sadbhavana has been making two mistakes.

One is the party's continued split. The personality clash between Tripathy and Mandal continues unabated. Mandal is Tripathy's Deuba. It must be said that it is harder for members of powerless groups to exhibit unity. The tendency is towards disintegration, to falling easy prey to the power structure, to getting used by the adversaries. This non-communication might be a microcosm of the larger reality in the country. The Maoists are not talking with the other camps either.

The second is the Sadbhavana going along with the big dogs like the Congress and the UML without bargaining for a new political set-up. The 1990 constitution has to go. The Sadbhavana has to realize that. After all, it is the party that burnt the document some time in the 1990s. Now the precondition for peace in the country is something the party has wanted all along but curiously has put on the backburner when it needs to put forward the most.

Too many Bahuns in the big parties want somehow to go back to the old order. The sooner they realize that is not possible, the sooner the country will see peace. Parties like the Sadbhavana help the cause of peace by getting assertive with their social agenda.

The crisis in the country is also impacting the social dynamic between the component social groups all the way to the diaspora. That rethink is a good thing. Old social thought patterns need to be dissolved to make way for new ones.

I was delighted to hear yesterday of the formation of the ANTA, a kind of a social outfit for the Madhesis in the US. This is a sign of much-needed assertiveness. The echo has to be heard back in Nepal.

I expect to work closely through my personal contacts in the Sadbhavana to reach the rest of the parties with my proposed constitution. I don't know of any other blueprint in circulation that seeks common ground between all three parties to the conflict.

Sending A Message From Washington To Kathmandu, The Washington Post
By Nora Boustany
Wednesday, May 11, 2005; Page A14

Nepalese from across the United States will gather at LaFayette Square at noon Sunday to protest their monarch's revocation of democracy, press freedom and human rights. The gathering comes as many foreign governments are losing patience with King Gyanendra and his harsh tactics against a Maoist insurgency in the Himalayan nation.

Gyanendra suspended most democratic institutions in 2002 and declared absolute rule Feb. 1. Human rights activists, student leaders and politicians have been disappearing by the thousands as the military suppresses dissent and criticism of the palace, while pursuing the Maoists in the mountainous countryside with increasingly brutal force.



Sujata Koirala , a member of the Nepali Congress party and daughter of former prime minister G.P. Koirala , will be joining the protesters Sunday. She has direct experience with the violence in her country -- she was almost killed this winter when a bomb exploded at her house in Nepal. She blames the attack on the army.

Nepal's former ambassador to the United Nations, Murari Raj Sharma , will address the crowd. "People look over their shoulders before opening their mouths" in Nepal, he said in a statement. "They are frightened."

On Monday, Gareth Evans , president of the advocacy organization International Crisis Group, sent a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair , Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan , urging concerted action to restrict military aid to Nepal until democracy is restored.

After Gyanendra declared absolute rule, India and Britain suspended military assistance to the country of 25 million and broke off diplomatic relations. But the United States did not cut off its $22 million military aid package, which is used to purchase M-16 rifles and finance military intelligence training, among other things.

The letter from the International Crisis Group said conflict in Nepal has intensified since Feb. 1, with at least 655 people killed. State security forces "were responsible for at least 530 of those deaths, many apparently innocent civilians, and the Maoists have killed 125 people, many of these also civilians," the letter said.

"King Gyanendra's self-imposed 100-day deadline to restore order and lay out a road map for democracy and peace in Nepal will pass on 11 May, with only limited progress towards these aims," the letter said. The king officially ended absolute rule last week, but human rights groups say that arrests and killings continue.

Christina Rocca , U.S. assistant secretary of state for South Asia, arrived in Nepal Monday and is scheduled to meet Gyanendra to press for a return to democracy.

An advocacy director at Amnesty International, T. Kumar , urged Rocca "not to miss the opportunity to send a strong message to the king that the United States will not sit silently and provide any military assistance until restoration of human rights and democracy in Nepal."

Yesterday, after Rocca publicly called for the restoration of democratic liberties in Nepal, the government freed four detained opposition politicians and India said it would partially resume the military aid it had suspended, according to the Associated Press.

The insurgency dates to 1996, when Maoists bent on abolishing the established order, beginning with the monarchy, began a campaign in the countryside. They capitalized on disgruntlement with a system that had concentrated money, land and power in the hands of high-caste Hindus and a few tribal chiefs loyal to the monarch.

The rebels have extended their power by raiding police stations, seizing guns and extorting money from business owners. In the meantime, the king has struggled to respond. He dissolved parliament in 2002 and has fired three prime ministers, moves that are not sanctioned by the Nepalese constitution.

Today, Nepalese villagers are often trapped between the gun muzzles of insurgents who demand food and lodging, and soldiers who come looking for the rebels. Before the soldiers leave, they often line up farmers and execute them for suspected complicity, according to Dinesh Prasain , a human rights activist from Nepal.



"The army justifies its human rights violations by saying, 'Look how brutal the Maoists are,' and they are," Prasain said. "But since 1996, 12,000 people have died. The state security forces have killed close to 7,800 Nepalese while the Maoist rebels have killed about 4,200, a ratio of two to one." The figures have been documented by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the United Nations and other organizations.

"We understand the role of the army is to fight the insurgency, but it also has to be accountable to the people of Nepal and respect human rights and international humanitarian terms and conditions," said Prasain, a sociologist.

Two million people have moved to neighboring countries as refugees, Prasain said. In February, he joined that list, fleeing to India with four members of his Collective Campaign for Peace, a coalition of 40 organizations. By his account, hundreds of activists continue to report on human rights violations through an underground network.

It remains risky work. Last Thursday, Gagan Thapa , a student leader, was snatched by police as soon he was released by court order. "They have this revolving-door system," said Prasain.

Now Prasain is in the United States, brought here by Nepalese Americans in an effort to raise awareness of the crisis in his country.

"I really would like to go back," he said, "but what good would I do in jail?"

May 12
May 11
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Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Lifting Emergency: Was It A Major Step?


The political parties have called it an "eyewash," but I disagree. My big fear was the Monarchists might try to scrap the constitution and start afresh. But the lift shows the king might be stretching a few articles of the constitution but he is at least trying to adhere to it. That is good news.

So, yes, I think it was a major step. Not enough, but big enough. The fundamental rights have not been restored, political prisoners have not been released. But things would have been worse had the emergency not been lifted.

Plus, I don't think the king thought he could deceive anyone, least of all the international community on the issue for it to have been an eyewash. I think he is trying to send a signal. As in, here is a major positive step from my side, now your turn to reciprocate. I don't think he ever thought the lift will fool the foreign powers into thinking democracy is back.

I understand the political parties are the ones who are having to bear the brunt of 2/1. So I understand their impatience. But it might not be such a good idea to be totally dismissive. Instead, perhaps the lift was a positive step in the right direction, but the king has still a few major steps to take.

The three "horses" continue to pull in three different directions.

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