I wasn’t sure the day would ever come that I’d write a diary on dkos. I’m frankly intimidated by the great writers here, and unsure that I can rise to the challenge of producing something that will interest you.
This week, however, two things happened to make me dare to try. First, was a vivid diary about May Day in Nepal that garnered some attention and made me want to share my perspectives more than was possible there. And second, was an incident that occurred (not unusual in type, but extreme in severity, at least here in Kathmandu), that is still, some six days later, troubling me greatly. If you follow me below the fold, I’d like to share it with you, as a way of illustrating my deep concern about the Maoist movement in Nepal, and my frustration with those among my compatriots on the left who too are too eager, in my view, to paint them as noble freedom fighters for the people.
Background:
First some background, though I don’t intend to bore you with a long diary full of dates and numbers and references (all available if someone’s interested). Nepal’s civil conflict with the Maoists was a low-intensity movement for several years, until 2001. At that point, the Maoists began attacking police posts, casualties rose steeply, and the army was for the first time called out. This was the same year of the palace massacre that led to King Birendra’s brother, the far less popular or trusted, Gyanendra, assuming the throne. It’s hard to understand the conflict without taking into account the role of the political situation, particularly as it has developed recently, but I won’t go into all the political events that led up to this, including the dismissal of the Parliament, the King’s direct rule, and the current dance occurring between the political actors and the Maoists, because it would make this diary far too long. If there’s interest though, I could perhaps try to answer questions in the comments, or perhaps screw up my nerve enough to try another diary on those matters.
The political situation began to unravel with the mobilization of the army – something the powerful, perennial prime minister Koirala, had not been able to accomplish. The powerful Congress party split, Deuba was left with a small splinter party, and after dissolving Parliament and being unable to hold elections was dismissed by the King several months later. A period of constant strikes and demonstrations ensued, culminating in last April’s Jana Andolin II (or People’s Movement), which concluded with Koirala reappointed as Prime Minister, and the Parliament (elected some 7 years ago), re-established, and an interim Constitution agreed.
The intention is to move forward now towards Constituent Assembly elections to draft a new Constitution, but a pre-requisite was for the violent activities to stop, the Maoist army and a percentage of the Nepal Army to be housed in cantonments and hand over their weapons under a UN-supervised process. The Maoists joined the interim parliament, and more recently, were given ministerial portfolios in an all-party government to oversee the run-up to the constituent assembly elections.
Peace Agreement - but violence continues
This is where we are. Except the violence, extortion, murders, and kidnappings haven’t really ceased. And there are worrying separatist tendencies, most notably the people of Nepal’s breadbasket, or rice bowl, – the Terai – who have now launched their own violent movement demanding the federal structure and representation in Parliament they believed the Maoist rhetoric of the past had promised them. The Maoist response to their former supporters launching this was to suggest the government allow their fighters to go crush the movement violently, with the help of the army if necessary, in an suggestion loaded with irony. They reluctantly dropped that idea when the government entered into negotiations on what many see as legitimate grievances of the Terai people.
The widely accepted view is that initially there was substantial support for the Maoist movement. This support stemmed from a variety of factors – problems of exclusion, elite capture, poor governance, and dysfunctional political representation probably chief among them. That the Maoist movement was able to tap into popular discontentment with an attractive social agenda is certain. This social agenda was broadly supported by much of society, and even at a much earlier stage of negotiations for peace – years ago – the then-Deuba government would have been willing to concede all those demands. The problem was on the political agenda, the economic agenda, and, most of all perhaps, the violence of their tactics.
Perhaps support for the Maoists started evaporating in the countryside much earlier, but the first it was noticeable in Kathmandu is when they brought their fight to the city, with bombs in government offices, the "regrettable" blowing up of a passenger bus full of civilians, or the bomb that killed a small boy trying to use a toilet next door to his school. Or, perhaps it was when the more privileged Nepalis began seeing their children taken out of their schools by force to attend Maoist rallies, or when the extortion and lawlessness started reaching the capital. That many of the elite did support the Maoist goals, but now do not want them in power, is certain. That many of the non-elite have become disenchanted with the violence and the strutting impunity with which the Maoists cadre have conducted themselves is also clear, at least to me.
I won’t try to go into too many examples, but instead will point you to a few news stories, though they’re abundant if anyone wants to research this further. Some interesting links, all within the last week or so, are below, though there are myriad of stories many much worse, that could be pulled from earlier weeks:
here,
or this on journalists,
and this one.
Other links from the last few days, could include this,
or this, or this.
A bit older story, but worth sharing to get a flavor, still post-peace agreement though, would be this one.. Or for those who think there is no more armed conflict, I could show you this. Here's a summary of the kinds of things I constantly hear, and here's what OHCHR has to say about Maoist compliance with peace agreements.
It's all around us and just normal here in Kathmandu by now. Gangs of tough looking youth, with red headbands, stop cars on the streets and demand money, or go house-to-house on donation campaigns that people are afraid to refuse. The extortion of business and the forcible enrollment into Maoist trade unions of all the workers in hotels and factories, and the like has had tremendous economic cost. In the rural areas, the shutting down of food supply to certain food-deficit districts has brought tremendous hardship, and resentment has built to their forced closure of community schools, drinking water and micro-hydroelectric schemes unless either the donors or the community will give them a sizable "cut" and allow them to control the activities. These were popular activities, empowering activities, areas where the local people often had a voice in how services were delivered to them for the first time in history. They were not happy.
More than even those things though, there is now growing mistrust about the Maoist motivations. People hoped for peace, for an end to the violence. They wanted to believe the Maoist excesses were in the past, part of a war against a feudalistic system, and now would end once they are in government, ready to serve the people, and deliver on their promises. This is not what they’re seeing. Rather, some are discontented on seeing the Maoist political leaders acting as incompetent, power-hungry and corrupt as any Nepali politician, and therefore believe even having the Maoists in power will change nothing. The King has been marginalized and is hardly seen, and certainly not ruling, it’s been a year, and nothing has improved. The patience is wearing thin. The spectacles of Maoist politicians bringing bodyguards with guns into Parliament, refusing to allow Parliament to conduct business, hurling threats from the floor, of having their parliamentarians refuse to obey even traffic laws, or driving stolen vehicles with falsified plates - these things all add up to make people think the Maoists are behaving with impunity, not as responsible members of a multi-party government.
Others have even darker views. They look at the very small number of weapons (mostly old) handed over to the UN. They look at the masses of Maoist enforcers on the streets, now known as the Young Communists League, and ask themselves who then are the people in cantonments, and how is it possible to have elections without intimidation when even here in Kathmandu people are intimidated? And there is ample evidence to support their fears as some of the above links show.
This brings me to the event last Sunday that was the final straw for me. On the campus of the government college – Tribhuvan University a terrible thing has happened. There had been some tension over a few days between women students of the Nepali Congress student union and the Maoist student union. On Sunday, the Maoist affiliated women students returned to campus, bringing with them a reported 60 or so thugs (sorry, no other word will do) from the Maoists’ Young Communist League. The women pointed out the young girls who were affiliated with the Congress student union, and were refusing to join the Maoists’ own union. These six women – all young, and most likely from less well-off backgrounds (since they're not in private colleges)– were brutally, savagely attacked. I will quote one of the few news stories available, but the coverage has been spotty on details, maybe not helped by the fact that the Maoists now control the Ministry of Information and Communications and the pressure on journalists not to report their excesses that I linked to above. Here's what's in the news reports:
Nepali Congress Women’s Association has submitted memorandum to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala against the atrocities of the Maoist affiliated Young Communist League (YCL).
The memorandum demanded compensation of the damage in Padma Kanya College and medical expense from the Maoists.
The memorandum also warned the YCL not to repeat such acts in the future.
Many students of the Nepal Student Union (NSU), affiliated to the Nepali Congress, were injured during a clash between them and the Maoist affiliated student union. NSU alleged that YCL entered the campus along with Maoist affiliated students and beaten up students.
http://www.nepalnews.com.np/...
The story I’ve learned though is far more graphic and horrifying. These women were not only savagely beaten – left with broken bones, and covered with bruises. (And remember - there are six in hospital - attacked by 10 times their number of male thugs.) They also had acid poured down their throats and then were sexually violated with sharp wooden sticks. Two were still in a coma last I heard, one in critical condition. Their crime? Refusing to join the Maoist student union. That’s all. Join us or we'll make you pay. The message is chillingly clear to all the students isn’t it? That such barbarity occurs is obviously horrendous. But the political message behind it is what worries me, and what I want to share with you.
It may be easy for observers from afar to paint Nepal’s Maoists as brave fighters for inclusion and democracy, for social justice and an end to feudalism. For those of us here watching though, it is not that simple or obvious. Most of us want those very same things. I don’t believe, however, that one is likely to find them as the end product of the reign of terror and brutality that the Maoists have waged -- the breaking of legs with heavy logs, the savage killings, the extortion of the local people, the conscription of children into their army, the kidnapping of children and their instruction in how to make bombs, rather than how to do multiplication tables.
But there's a peace agreement now, so surely that's in the past, right? The Maoists are in government and Parliament. They have signed a code of conduct. Their fighters are to be in cantonments so elections can be held in a free and fair manner without threat or intimidation. But this week, in Kathmandu, the hundreds of students at one college campus, saw how free they were to follow their own political beliefs. And the answer was, not free at all, not in safety anyway. The terror continues – the only open question being, is it because Chairman Prachanda can’t stop it, or because he won’t? Neither bode well for the future of Nepal.
But my message to this community is this. Surely you can’t fight for democracy by denying people their democratic rights. You can’t fight to empower the people while brutally suppressing them for daring to speak in opposition to your program or platform, or even brutal methods. You can’t tell the people you are different, you are fighting for them, while continuing to extort money from them they cannot afford to part with, all the while serving in the government and Parliament on their behalf. The threats, intimidation and violence are simply not acceptable. But one year after the Jana Andolin, and I see no evidence of it stopping. It gives credence to the view of some that the Maoists are simply trying another route to power, and once there, will prove themselves to be just another totalitarian regime, albeit one a bit more willing to brutally kill people and rape them with sticks and pour acid down their throats if opposed than the previous autocratic one.
This is obviously not what the Nepali people want, nor what we should want for them. Whether it’s still possible for Nepal to avoid this, with all its challenges, not least of which is self-serving and short-sighted political leaders, is uncertain. I hope it's possible, because the alternatives hurt my heart to consider. I don't think we find that solution though while pretending these excesses are not happening or irrelevant, or just part of the cost of "revolution" that sounds oh-so-romantic and justifiable when it's not your family being threatened or killed. The people of Nepal deserve far better. But the Maoists are not it - or at least not this way. Those young girls did not deserve this. None of the Nepali people do. I pray there's a path ahead that avoids the perils of violent dictatorship or a return to the corrupt politics of old. I just believe we're more likely to find that way with eyes wide open to the dangers lying on both sides.
Peace. To all of us, and, most of all, to the people of Nepal who so much crave it.