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Nepal: Revolution within a Revolution
Via NY Transfer News Collective All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Bill Koehnlein
Inter Press Service - Feb 1, 2007
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36397
Nepal: Revolution within a Revolution
by Marty Logan
KATHMANDU, Feb 1 (IPS) - A 12-day uprising by Nepal's "madheshi"
(plains) people has forced the revolutionary government to promise it
will change the state structure to more fairly distribute power to
excluded groups.
The "new Nepal" will be a federal state instead of the current
centralised one and will include more electoral constituencies to
reflect recent population growth, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala
announced in a televised speech Wednesday.
Madheshis now comprise 36 percent of the population of this South Asian
nation bordered by India and China but have held only roughly 15 percent
of the seats in recent governments. Women, indigenous people and dalits
(so-called "untouchables" under Hindu dogma) are the other "excluded"
groups in this society dominated by upper-caste males.
"We are working on the formation of a new structure of the state, where
people from all races, castes and quarters will be represented. All of
them will have their responsible roles in building the nation," said
Koirala in the speech. He also directed the home minister to hold talks
with madheshi protesters.
But such rhetoric is unlikely to satisfy protesting madheshis and other
"excluded" Nepalis who have raised their voices in unison with protests
on the plains in recent day. For example, groups representing three
indigenous nationalities called a three-day general strike in the
eastern hills from Wednesday to press their demands for ethnic autonomy
and the right to self-determination.
Koirala's speech was burned by activists of political parties in some
parts of the terai, daily newspaper The Himalayan Times reported
Thursday. "To say that constituencies will be based on population
increase is merely an attempt to mislead the madheshi people," said
Bhagya Nath Gupta of the Madheshi People's Rights Forum, the group
leading the protests, reported the paper.
Wednesday evening activists reportedly stabbed to death a policeman
after storming a police post near the city of Biratnagar in southeastern
Nepal. One protester was reportedly killed in a police counter-attack.
Biratnagar had been under a curfew since Tuesday afternoon when one
demonstrator was killed in clashes with police.
"I assure you there will be no election if the Madhesh issue is not
settled...this movement will not be stopped. That's because all of us
living here (in Kathmandu) will leave and go to the Madhesh to support
it," said Vijay Kant Karna, chairman of madheshi rights NGO, JAGHRIT
Nepal.
And while the government is promising federal government, Karna told IPS
that protesters have a specific model in mind. All powers would be
transferred to states except finance, foreign policy and defence. "We
want a federal system where all the ethnic people can build their states
in their own way," he added.
The Maoists brought notions of federalism and autonomy into the
mainstream when they divided Nepal into nine autonomous regions based
largely on the dominant indigenous group in each area. They also
promised these groups the right to become independent nations if they
could not agree with the central government.
But Maoist leaders have questioned the authenticity of the current
madheshi uprising, blaming it on flames kindled by disgruntled royalists
and Hindu activists. One of the first acts of the recalled parliament
after April's "people's movement" was to declare the former "Kingdom of
Nepal" a secular state.
Most senior government leaders have also downplayed madheshi grievances
and pointed fingers at "regressive elements" working behind the scenes
to revive the monarchy. On Tuesday three former ministers from the
king's regime were arrested for instigating violence in the "terai"
(plains region). On Wednesday they were handed three-month detention
warrants under the Public Security Act. The government said it has a
watch list of 80 other royalists.
The madhesh revolt was sparked when Maoist activists reportedly shot
dead a madheshi who was among a group trying to enforce a transportation
strike to protest the government's interim constitution Jan. 19. Since
then eight people have died, hundreds have been injured and closures
have crippled economic lifelines from the plains to the capital
Kathmandu in the country's central hills and remote mountain regions.
The interim constitution was passed by a temporary legislative assembly
Jan. 15. It is notable for 73 Maoist members, whose place was secured in
the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed between government and formal
rebel leaders last November. After 10 years of guerrilla war, the
Maoists suspended their revolt last April to team up with major
political parties against the autocratic rule of King Gyanendra, who was
pushed from power by a tidal wave of hundreds of thousands of protesters
on Nepal's streets.
The interim government is tasked with preparing the nation for elections
in June to a constituent assembly that will draft a permanent
constitution. But unrest threatens the possibility for the 'safe and
secure environment' that is required to hold the polls.
"A redefinition of Nepal is essential," said Karna. "We are
multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-religious but one country."
Inter Press Service - Jan 20, 2007
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36237
Revolutionary Politics, Feudal Justice
by Marty Logan
KATHMANDU, Jan 20 (IPS) - While former Maoist outlaws have traded battle
fatigues for grey suits and seats in Parliament, torture victim Pradesh
Bahadur Bista is making the rounds of hospitals for proof that his
chronic pains were caused by daily torture during 100 days of illegal
detention by soldiers of the Nepali Army.
A lot has changed in the "new Nepal" that dawned Apr. 25, 2006, the day
after King Gyanendra relented in the face of hundreds of thousands of
chanting protesters and recalled Parliament -- but a lot has not.
"I don't expect to get compensation for this but I want to punish the
perpetrators, who deny doing this to me," says Bista, who was seized
from home by plainclothes men as a suspected Maoist on Sep. 10, 2003.
For the next 100 days he was held in the army's infamous Maharajgung
Barracks in the capital Kathmandu, home to the Bhairav Nath Battalion,
and tortured almost daily. "I want to see that battalion disbanded," he
adds in an interview.
In two weeks Bista will make his seventh appearance in court to try to
set that process in motion. Since 2002, just six victims of torture by
army or police have been awarded compensation, according to NGO Advocacy
Forum, which is assisting Bista.
"Breaking the climate of impunity in Nepal remains the single most
difficult human rights challenge," wrote the United Nations high
commissioner for human rights in her annual report in October. Louise
Arbour arrived in Kathmandu on Friday for a six-day visit to assess the
rights landscape since Maoist and government leaders signed a peace deal
in November, ending a 10-year insurgency that left more than 13,000
people dead.
It is estimated that tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of people fled
their homes after threats from the rebels or government security forces
during the decade; no one knows how many were tortured or "disappeared"
- -- and few people in power seem prepared to find out.
"There are few signs of the government actively taking steps to
effectively end impunity -- institutions haven't been reformed and there
is no indication of a change of culture as regards accountability," says
Sandra Beidas, chief of protection at the human rights commissioner's
Nepal office.
In May her office released a report of its investigation into charges of
arbitrary detention, torture and disappearances in 2003-2004 at Bhairav
Nath. "Most of the hundreds of individuals who were arrested by the
(Army) in 2003 and detained for varying periods in Maharajgunj barracks
were subjected to severe and prolonged ill-treatment and torture," it
says.
"At least 49 persons, and probably a significantly higher number, remain
disappeared. National and international appeals for information and
clarification were ignored. Detainees were hidden from inspection," adds
the report.
In October, the Secretary of the Minister of Defence told a
parliamentary committee the UN report was based on "fallacious
accusations". Two of the 49 people named in the UN report had died and
10 were released to their families, he added, but was silent on the 37
others.
Last week the Supreme Court ordered a taskforce probing the
disappearances of four people to expand its scope to include the 49 in
the report. "It's an important step in the context of almost total
impunity but much much more needs to be done," Beidas told IPS. "There
are many more human rights abuses that occurred in the course of the
conflict and outside the conflict."
On Friday, Bista was at training workshop in the capital learning about
the security of human rights defenders, one of 18 people nominated from
victims' rights group that Advocacy Forum has helped establish. "Our
main goal is to publicise our painful experiences for all Nepalis to
see," said Bista, a small, soft-spoken, middle-aged man.
"We also want justice from the government, including compensation for
those who are still having health problems...I still have pains in my
chest where the soldiers kicked and punched me," he added.
Promises of human rights protection figure prominently in many of the
agreements that the government and Maoists signed en route to November's
final peace deal. But often they lack the substance needed to fulfil
such pledges, according to the UN rights office, while the new Army Act
actually makes military courts responsible for torture and disappearance
cases. "That's one of our big concerns," said Beidas.
Other worrying signs have emerged about the government's commitment to
ending impunity for rights violations. A commission established to probe
those responsible for the deaths of protesters in April's "people's
movement" in November named 202 people who should be prosecuted,
including King Gyanendra, then government ministers and security chiefs.
But it has yet to be made public.
Human rights NGOs have been leading a campaign to pressure the
government to sign the treaty that would bind it to the International
Criminal Court, whose mandate is to investigate allegations of genocide
and crimes against humanity. Parliament in July directed the government
to ratify the Rome Statute but it only set up a taskforce, which
submitted its report one month ago.
Many activists are looking to a future Truth and Reconciliation
Commission, promised in November's Comprehensive Peace Agreement, as an
essential step to finally emptying the skeletons in the country's human
rights closet. "It can be a crucial step along this process", if done
right, said Beidas. That means its mandate must be decided in
consultation with victims and their relatives, and its members must be
credible and independent.
"But truth commissions themselves cannot substitute for prosecutions of
serious human rights violations," she added.
================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
Search Archives: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/htdig/search.html
List Archives: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
Subscribe: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
================================================================
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Hash: SHA1
Nepal: Revolution within a Revolution
Via NY Transfer News Collective All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Bill Koehnlein
Inter Press Service - Feb 1, 2007
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36397
Nepal: Revolution within a Revolution
by Marty Logan
KATHMANDU, Feb 1 (IPS) - A 12-day uprising by Nepal's "madheshi"
(plains) people has forced the revolutionary government to promise it
will change the state structure to more fairly distribute power to
excluded groups.
The "new Nepal" will be a federal state instead of the current
centralised one and will include more electoral constituencies to
reflect recent population growth, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala
announced in a televised speech Wednesday.
Madheshis now comprise 36 percent of the population of this South Asian
nation bordered by India and China but have held only roughly 15 percent
of the seats in recent governments. Women, indigenous people and dalits
(so-called "untouchables" under Hindu dogma) are the other "excluded"
groups in this society dominated by upper-caste males.
"We are working on the formation of a new structure of the state, where
people from all races, castes and quarters will be represented. All of
them will have their responsible roles in building the nation," said
Koirala in the speech. He also directed the home minister to hold talks
with madheshi protesters.
But such rhetoric is unlikely to satisfy protesting madheshis and other
"excluded" Nepalis who have raised their voices in unison with protests
on the plains in recent day. For example, groups representing three
indigenous nationalities called a three-day general strike in the
eastern hills from Wednesday to press their demands for ethnic autonomy
and the right to self-determination.
Koirala's speech was burned by activists of political parties in some
parts of the terai, daily newspaper The Himalayan Times reported
Thursday. "To say that constituencies will be based on population
increase is merely an attempt to mislead the madheshi people," said
Bhagya Nath Gupta of the Madheshi People's Rights Forum, the group
leading the protests, reported the paper.
Wednesday evening activists reportedly stabbed to death a policeman
after storming a police post near the city of Biratnagar in southeastern
Nepal. One protester was reportedly killed in a police counter-attack.
Biratnagar had been under a curfew since Tuesday afternoon when one
demonstrator was killed in clashes with police.
"I assure you there will be no election if the Madhesh issue is not
settled...this movement will not be stopped. That's because all of us
living here (in Kathmandu) will leave and go to the Madhesh to support
it," said Vijay Kant Karna, chairman of madheshi rights NGO, JAGHRIT
Nepal.
And while the government is promising federal government, Karna told IPS
that protesters have a specific model in mind. All powers would be
transferred to states except finance, foreign policy and defence. "We
want a federal system where all the ethnic people can build their states
in their own way," he added.
The Maoists brought notions of federalism and autonomy into the
mainstream when they divided Nepal into nine autonomous regions based
largely on the dominant indigenous group in each area. They also
promised these groups the right to become independent nations if they
could not agree with the central government.
But Maoist leaders have questioned the authenticity of the current
madheshi uprising, blaming it on flames kindled by disgruntled royalists
and Hindu activists. One of the first acts of the recalled parliament
after April's "people's movement" was to declare the former "Kingdom of
Nepal" a secular state.
Most senior government leaders have also downplayed madheshi grievances
and pointed fingers at "regressive elements" working behind the scenes
to revive the monarchy. On Tuesday three former ministers from the
king's regime were arrested for instigating violence in the "terai"
(plains region). On Wednesday they were handed three-month detention
warrants under the Public Security Act. The government said it has a
watch list of 80 other royalists.
The madhesh revolt was sparked when Maoist activists reportedly shot
dead a madheshi who was among a group trying to enforce a transportation
strike to protest the government's interim constitution Jan. 19. Since
then eight people have died, hundreds have been injured and closures
have crippled economic lifelines from the plains to the capital
Kathmandu in the country's central hills and remote mountain regions.
The interim constitution was passed by a temporary legislative assembly
Jan. 15. It is notable for 73 Maoist members, whose place was secured in
the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed between government and formal
rebel leaders last November. After 10 years of guerrilla war, the
Maoists suspended their revolt last April to team up with major
political parties against the autocratic rule of King Gyanendra, who was
pushed from power by a tidal wave of hundreds of thousands of protesters
on Nepal's streets.
The interim government is tasked with preparing the nation for elections
in June to a constituent assembly that will draft a permanent
constitution. But unrest threatens the possibility for the 'safe and
secure environment' that is required to hold the polls.
"A redefinition of Nepal is essential," said Karna. "We are
multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-religious but one country."
Inter Press Service - Jan 20, 2007
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36237
Revolutionary Politics, Feudal Justice
by Marty Logan
KATHMANDU, Jan 20 (IPS) - While former Maoist outlaws have traded battle
fatigues for grey suits and seats in Parliament, torture victim Pradesh
Bahadur Bista is making the rounds of hospitals for proof that his
chronic pains were caused by daily torture during 100 days of illegal
detention by soldiers of the Nepali Army.
A lot has changed in the "new Nepal" that dawned Apr. 25, 2006, the day
after King Gyanendra relented in the face of hundreds of thousands of
chanting protesters and recalled Parliament -- but a lot has not.
"I don't expect to get compensation for this but I want to punish the
perpetrators, who deny doing this to me," says Bista, who was seized
from home by plainclothes men as a suspected Maoist on Sep. 10, 2003.
For the next 100 days he was held in the army's infamous Maharajgung
Barracks in the capital Kathmandu, home to the Bhairav Nath Battalion,
and tortured almost daily. "I want to see that battalion disbanded," he
adds in an interview.
In two weeks Bista will make his seventh appearance in court to try to
set that process in motion. Since 2002, just six victims of torture by
army or police have been awarded compensation, according to NGO Advocacy
Forum, which is assisting Bista.
"Breaking the climate of impunity in Nepal remains the single most
difficult human rights challenge," wrote the United Nations high
commissioner for human rights in her annual report in October. Louise
Arbour arrived in Kathmandu on Friday for a six-day visit to assess the
rights landscape since Maoist and government leaders signed a peace deal
in November, ending a 10-year insurgency that left more than 13,000
people dead.
It is estimated that tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of people fled
their homes after threats from the rebels or government security forces
during the decade; no one knows how many were tortured or "disappeared"
- -- and few people in power seem prepared to find out.
"There are few signs of the government actively taking steps to
effectively end impunity -- institutions haven't been reformed and there
is no indication of a change of culture as regards accountability," says
Sandra Beidas, chief of protection at the human rights commissioner's
Nepal office.
In May her office released a report of its investigation into charges of
arbitrary detention, torture and disappearances in 2003-2004 at Bhairav
Nath. "Most of the hundreds of individuals who were arrested by the
(Army) in 2003 and detained for varying periods in Maharajgunj barracks
were subjected to severe and prolonged ill-treatment and torture," it
says.
"At least 49 persons, and probably a significantly higher number, remain
disappeared. National and international appeals for information and
clarification were ignored. Detainees were hidden from inspection," adds
the report.
In October, the Secretary of the Minister of Defence told a
parliamentary committee the UN report was based on "fallacious
accusations". Two of the 49 people named in the UN report had died and
10 were released to their families, he added, but was silent on the 37
others.
Last week the Supreme Court ordered a taskforce probing the
disappearances of four people to expand its scope to include the 49 in
the report. "It's an important step in the context of almost total
impunity but much much more needs to be done," Beidas told IPS. "There
are many more human rights abuses that occurred in the course of the
conflict and outside the conflict."
On Friday, Bista was at training workshop in the capital learning about
the security of human rights defenders, one of 18 people nominated from
victims' rights group that Advocacy Forum has helped establish. "Our
main goal is to publicise our painful experiences for all Nepalis to
see," said Bista, a small, soft-spoken, middle-aged man.
"We also want justice from the government, including compensation for
those who are still having health problems...I still have pains in my
chest where the soldiers kicked and punched me," he added.
Promises of human rights protection figure prominently in many of the
agreements that the government and Maoists signed en route to November's
final peace deal. But often they lack the substance needed to fulfil
such pledges, according to the UN rights office, while the new Army Act
actually makes military courts responsible for torture and disappearance
cases. "That's one of our big concerns," said Beidas.
Other worrying signs have emerged about the government's commitment to
ending impunity for rights violations. A commission established to probe
those responsible for the deaths of protesters in April's "people's
movement" in November named 202 people who should be prosecuted,
including King Gyanendra, then government ministers and security chiefs.
But it has yet to be made public.
Human rights NGOs have been leading a campaign to pressure the
government to sign the treaty that would bind it to the International
Criminal Court, whose mandate is to investigate allegations of genocide
and crimes against humanity. Parliament in July directed the government
to ratify the Rome Statute but it only set up a taskforce, which
submitted its report one month ago.
Many activists are looking to a future Truth and Reconciliation
Commission, promised in November's Comprehensive Peace Agreement, as an
essential step to finally emptying the skeletons in the country's human
rights closet. "It can be a crucial step along this process", if done
right, said Beidas. That means its mandate must be decided in
consultation with victims and their relatives, and its members must be
credible and independent.
"But truth commissions themselves cannot substitute for prosecutions of
serious human rights violations," she added.
================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
Search Archives: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/htdig/search.html
List Archives: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/
Subscribe: http://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr
================================================================
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