My most recent trip to Nepal was April-May 2007. I interviewed many people including Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, (Maoist leader), out-going Ambassador Moriarty (USA), Ambassador Andrew Hall (UK), ex-Prime Minister of Nepal Sher Bahadur Deuba, the behind-the-scenes leader of the Student Activists Gagan Thapa, head of UNDP Matthew Kahane, Ambassador Graeme Lade (Australia), women's activist Arzu Rana Deuba, Human Rights activist Vijay Kant Karna, founder of the Himalaya Bank Himalaya Rana, leading television journalist and documentarian Dil Bhusan Pathaki, among others. I befriended Sam Taylor, Bureau Chief of Agence France-Press; together, we are working on a lengthy piece on the Bhutanese refugee crisis. I and my assistant Govinda Rijal traveled to the southern cities of Janakpur and Birgunj to interview numerous Madeshi activists, both moderates and extremists. I traveled with leading human rights leader Kapil Shrestra to his home village in Chautara District. I filmed orphanages, homeless rag-pickers along the filthy Bagmati River, extended members of the royal family, upper-class wedding parties, grim street demonstrations, oblivious tourists in Thamel, brutally beaten women in ICU because of their political stance--to name a few. I had lunch with Sir Edmund Hillary.
The feeling that I came away with was that, although there are some promising signs, Nepal is in for a very difficult summer.
The elections that were to be held in June have been postponed until sometime late in November. The actual date has yet to be decided. The Maoists have already struck a note of dissent. Maoist MP Dinanath Sharma told the media (after the May 30th announcement) that his party believed free and fair elections would not be possible as long as the monarchy remained in Nepal. The utter abolishment of the monarchy and the proclamation of a republic are two Maoist demands that the Seven-Party Alliance is either reluctant or impotent to act upon. When I interviewed Maoist leader Dr. Bhattarai, he made it quite clear that the monarchy question is non-negotiable. Dialog between the opposing parties is ongoing, which is vital, but headway--particularly in regard to King Gyanendra's throne--is negligible.
Everywhere one looks there are double-edged swords. This spring, the hotels were full--the first time I had witnessed that during the seven trips I have made in the last three years. The taste of foreign currency was sweet on the lips of shopkeepers, restaurateurs, tour agencies and hoteliers. But the United States has just issued a "stay out of Nepal" warning and, if European countries follow suit, the streets of Kathmandu may soon find themselves idle once again. The dread is palpable...
An organization calling themselves the Young Communist League (YCL)--an erratic affiliate of the Maoists--long creating turmoil in the countryside--have now inundated the capitol. The estimate is that there is 1000 of them in Kathmandu. Their stance is that they are doing what the established police force should be doing but wont. To a certain extent, their actions verify this. Only last week, for instance, they seized vehicles containing customs-evaded goods from the Airport Cargo Department and handed them over to the proper government authority for prosecution. But there is also a thuggish side to the YCL. I witnessed firsthand the results of their violence toward female students who belonged to the National Congress Party: twelve were hospitalized, five with serious injuries and two in critical condition because of crushed pelvises and pulverized wombs. They intimidate non-Maoist students, local businessmen and politicians alike. Analysts claim that the YCL is a group of highly trained Maoist commandos who, instead of being sent to the cantonments (currently being monitored by the UN) have been deliberately kept into the open by the party high command--to be on hand if the declaration of a republic and the abolishment of the monarchy fail to go into effect.
THE MADHESHI. In the Terai (the southern plains and jungles of Nepal bordering India), the potential for accelerated violence is even greater. Geographically and culturally, the Terai is vastly different from the hill and mountain regions Westerns normally associate with Nepal. It is at near sea level. It occupies 23% of Nepal's landmass and constitutes home for half of Nepal's population. Most of the Terai inhabitants are Madeshis, whose religious traditions, language, caste system, food, style of clothing and other social customs and manners more closely resemble Indian than Nepali. Apart from the local languages, they are more likely to speak Hindi than Nepali. Historically, the Madhesis have been marginalized, satirized, jeered at, harassed and excluded from central governmental politics by the hill people. Their skin is darker than other ethnic groups; racial slurs are commonplace. Madeshis who live under the absolute poverty line is higher than in any other area of Nepal making poverty itself the main factor of exclusion: They cannot afford basic education, primary health care, sanitation or decent housing.
Many Madeshis joined the Maoists during the ten years that the Maoists were underground. However, after the 2006 "19-Day Uprising" that successfully eliminated King Gyanendra's dictatorship and re-opened Parliament, many Maoist Madeshis lost faith in Maoist leadership, saying that their issues continued to be marginalized by the Maoists. They created their own extremist organizations, somewhat modeled after the Maoists. Violence in the Terai has been sporadic but brutal since December 2006. Their violence has succeeded in 1) attracting international news coverage and 2) forcing the interim government in Kathmandu to focus on Madeshi issues. Strategically, the Madeshis are in the position to close down the all important trade routes going in and out of India. Kathmandu has no choice but to listen. In the minds of many, this has played havoc with the interim government's schedule for an orderly set-up for free elections. How this problem will unfold during the summer is anyone's guess.
THE BHUTANESE REFUGEES. Also located in the Terai are seven Bhutanese refugee camps housing over 100,000 misplaced Bhutanese--a dreadful situation that began in the early 1990s when the king of Bhutan forced these Nepali-speaking Bhutanese to leave their country and resettle in India or Nepal. Many would call this ethnic cleansing but, by and large, the international community has been smitten with the idea that Bhutan is a Shangri-la, an image hard to dismantle in spite of hard facts to the contrary.
Recently, the United State offered to resettle 60,000 of the 107,000 refugees in America. This has created unexpected tension between those who want to go to a third country and others who insist they be given the right to return to Bhutan. Demands one of the refugee leaders, "We want unconditional passage via India to return to our country or the Indian government should try and resolve the issue through talks, otherwise our protests will continue.
Violence erupted this week. From a report filed by Sam Taylor, Nepal's Bureau Chief of Agence France-Presse:
KATHMANDU, May 29, 2007 (AFP) - A Bhutanese refugee was killed and 11 injured after Indian police fired on them as they tried to cross the Nepal-India border to return to their homeland, officials said Tuesday.
"An 18-year-old youth who was shot in the thigh died of blood loss while being taken to hospital," Balaram Poudel, vice-chairman of the National Front for Democracy in Bhutan, told AFP from the border town of Kakarbhitta, 290 kilometres (180 miles) southeast of Kathmandu.
At least 11 others were hurt in the shooting, said Poudel and a journalist who were both at the scene.
"Around 12 refugees were injured in the Indian police firing at the Mechi bridge," that divides Nepal and India, journalist Ujjwal Prasai said.
The refugees, who live in camps in southeastern Nepal, were trying to cross the narrow strip of India's West Bengal state that separates Nepal and Bhutan.
About 7,000 refugees had gathered at the border to attempt to cross into India's West Bengal and on to Bhutan, Indian officials said in state capital Kolkata.
They blamed the refugees of provoking the police action.
"The refugees threw stones and bombs injuring 50 people including villagers after the police fired teargas and rubber bullets," Indian police inspector general Raj Kanojia said in Kolkata.
"But the Bhutanese ignored the warning shots and continued their march across the Mechi river bridge," he said.
"As the Bhutanese entered the Indian side, we fired more than 100 rounds to chase them away," he said and asserted that as many as 50 Indian securitymen were also hurt in an ensuing clash.
Nepal declined to comment on the incident, saying the shootings did not happen on its soil.
Two refugees have been shot dead by Nepalese police during protests at a refugee camp in the last three days.
Last week, the top UN refugee official called on the Bhutanese to assist in settling the fate of the refugees.
Like the Madeshi situation, it remains to be seen what the summer bodes for the beleaguered Bhutanese...indeed, all of the citizens of Nepal.