Josefina Bergsten

Nepal is in a dangerous downward spiral towards utter ruin.

Since the Maoists' insurgency began in 1996, at least 10,234 lives have been lost and 34,303 people have been displaced, according to official figures. More than1,400 people have been forcibly disappeared. Of them, about 300 were reportedly abducted by the Maoists. The national security forces, meanwhile, are allegedly responsible for at least 1,097 disappearances as well as innumerable cases of torture and extrajudicial killings. Human rights activists say cases of rape by both the Maoists and the security forces are on the rise. A large number of rural children are being denied a continuous education, not to mention the many people in remote areas who no longer have access to health care, including maternity care, due to the civil war.

"The current conflict is increasingly serious," said Tapan Bose, secretary general of the South Asian Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR). The violence in Nepal, a result of the civil war between the Maoists and the government, is in fact an extension of the violence of the structure of traditional Nepali society, such as the caste system, discrimination against women, the feudal abuse of landless peasants and severe poverty, Bose said.

"Unfortunately, we don't see the generalised violence of the underlying structure as violence. We don't see young and old people dying from lack of medication, we don't see the struggles and deaths of the Dalits. But this is also violence and this violence has been continuing for a long time," the veteran human rights activist said. The systemic injustice of Nepal's society contributed to the rise of the Maoists, who declared that they would fight for a fairer and more equal society.

In 1990, after a people's movement for democratic reform, Nepal introduced constitutional monarchy with multi-party democracy. The democratic movement succeeded in part because of people's discontent with blatant corruption among the ruling elite and serious economic problems in the country. Ever since its birth, however, Nepal's democracy has been built on a shaky ground. Political parties have for the most part acted immaturely and shortsightedly. Nepal has seen 14 governments in the past 14 years, each one seemingly more unpopular than the last. Corruption has been rife. As each government has been so unstable and short-lived, politicians are often concerned more about lining their pockets during their short time in power than serving the people. A popular expression on the street is that politicians only stuff their own bellies. King Gyanendra, who has long made known his contempt for democracy, has suspended democracy since he fired the prime minister and dissolved the parliament in October 2002.

Economic Poverty

Lacking popular support, the state yet has the backing of a small section of society including those people who have benefited from the opening up of the economy. The real powers lie in the palace and the army on one side and the Maoists on the other. In between there is a power group consisting of the businessmen and industrialists, which has been dealing through the political parties and in many ways responsible for the corruption and the destruction of the political parties, Bose charged. 

Nepal had a phenomenal economic growth with high increase in exports during 1990 and 1993. But the growth was unsustainable. At the same time, the government put little resources on the agricultural sector that the majority of the people depend on. The government failed to do anything in terms of land reforms or basic structural changes. Nor did it improve much the transport and communications sectors. When the government realised that it had a very small revenue base and was incapable of investing and delivering on education, health, transport and communications, it began to privatise the public services. "All prices went up and people were screwed," Bose said. Domestic and international development work has failed to help lifting the economy. About 70 per cent of Nepal's population still live below the poverty line despite billions of dollars injected over the past 14 years.

Losing Control

The Maoists initially gained widespread popular support in rural areas around the country from people who considered the government was not doing anything to improve their lot. The backing for the Maoists, however, has been eroded gradually over the eight years of insurgency.

"In the beginning they raised some of the social issues and agendas, problems of exclusion, corruption, human rights violations, access to resources and access to justice," said Mandira Sharma, executive director of the Advocacy Forum, a network of peace and human rights based in Kathmandu. "But I don't think they have popular support anymore because if they did they would come out and contest in national elections. I think people are now terrorised by them and support by fear is not popular support."

One of the biggest problems in Nepal is corruption and lack of transparency, Sharma said. Many people initially supported the Maoist agendas for social reform and greater transparency. "They ask other organisations to be more transparent. When we go to the field they say we have to be transparent, we have to tell them how much money we get, how much money we spend, it has to be publicly audited. This is interesting and we support that. But when we ask them to be transparent-they have been raising money from the people, they have been taxing the people and so where this money goes -they don't tell the people," she said.

Most people think of the Maoists, not in terms of what social reforms they promote, but in terms of the terror and violence they subject the population to. "The Maoists have brought in arms and they now claim that they are trying to transform the society through the use of violence because the ruling elite will not give up power through dialogue. So they are acting through violence," Bose said. The Maoists are trapped in violence by building an army, expanding and taking over areas, establishing control over people and beginning to build their own institutions of state and control, he said.

A former international human rights adviser in Kathmandu, who wished to remain anonymous, said both sides of the conflict seemed to have been losing control of their field commanders. "As the conflict has intensified with greater risks and rising casualties, the field commanders get more power to respond. With most of the Maoist leadership in India they do not always seem to be in control of their forces on the ground," the expert said. That was evident in the murder of local journalist Dekendra Raj Thapa by the Maoists in the western region. The Maoist leadership apologised for the killing and called it a mistake. There are several other similar incidents. 

Everybody in Danger

In fact, not only journalists are in serious danger in Maoist-controlled areas. "It is getting very difficult for organisations to work in the districts because the Maoists have started to ask the organisations to register with them. That has put the staff of these organisations in an added risk because if you register with them you will be labelled as a terrorist support organisation. But if you don't register then you are under pressure and threat from the Maoists," Sharma said.

Teachers are also in dire straits. Almost every day the media report about cases where teachers and students, sometimes whole schools, are abducted and subjected to Maoist "re-education" or "progressive teaching", which involves not so much ideological education as weapons training. If the teachers are not willing to lecture the children on how to kill and maim in the name of Maoism they are often forced to flee the region. Many schools in the Maoist areas are no longer functioning properly. Children are deprived of a proper education while being indoctrinated in the violent ways of the Maoists. Prachanda, the Maoist leader, recently claimed that students and teachers "voluntarily" joined the Maoist activities, a remark that Nepal's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) called laughable.

"The Maoists are well on their way to take over a whole generation of young rural Nepalis," said the anonymous international adviser. "When you indoctrinate 13 to 15-year-olds and put a gun in their hands you can get them to follow wherever you want to go. They develop a 'do or die' attitude and they are capable of blindly carrying out the most unthinkable atrocities. So the conflict will go on despite the arrest or negotiations of the older Maoists who started it all in a quest for political power."

The cycle of violence has taken over from ideological and social issues that underpinned the beginning of the conflict. Like in most recent wars in other parts of the world, the moderates on both sides of Nepal's conflict are likely to be eliminated and the extremists will be left in power to carry out the war and fill their pockets.

The Advocacy Forum, the NHRC and other organisations, which still try to be active in the Maoist-controlled areas, have been pushing the Maoists to take responsibility for the protection and welfare of the people who live in areas where the Maoists have "liberated". Sushil Pyakurel, commissioner of the NHRC, said the Maoists must be held responsible if a woman died in childbirth because she had been denied access to health care, or if a child was denied the right to an education. "If a woman is raped in a Maoist-controlled area, the police cannot go to investigate as they are out of reach, so how can the rights of the people be protected?" Pyakurel asked. But the Maoists do not seem interested in discussing the matter. Law and order, health care and education are severely disrupted in the Maoist-held areas. 

The Maoists sometimes set up their own criminal "courts", Pyakurel said. They have informal types of committees, without the participation of legal professionals and lacking any legal understanding or understandings of due process. "They have not declared who are the people in the court, what are their qualifications. What is their law? Is their law that if somebody is spying they should be killed; if they do not give them money they should be killed?"

Impunity of RNA, Police

The Maoists are not solely responsible for the escalation of violence and human rights violations. The Royal Nepal Army (RNA) is equally responsible and has been committing horrifying crimes with almost complete impunity. Since the conflict began, the army has become increasingly well equipped militarily and capable of striking and bombing deep within Maoist-held areas. The problem is there are no front lines in this conflict. The war is being fought in homes and villages so families and civilians find themselves in the cross fires. Horrific human rights violations are being systematically committed against the population at large.

"What it means for the ordinary people is whether they are pro-Maoists or anti-Maoist is not really a material question because they are trapped by the forces of control," Bose said. "Wherever they are trapped they have to go along with the governing power." People are victims of both sides; the state kills people on suspicion of being pro-Maoists even if they are just following orders, and the Maoists are eliminating those on suspicion of being state spies.

Sharma's organisation deals primarily with the documentation of human rights violations, such as extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture and rape, with a focus on government security forces. She said Maoist atrocities were widely reported by the media but army incidents often went unreported for various reasons-people fear to report these cases, the media is under threat as are human rights activists.

"Hundreds of cases of extrajudicial killings have been reported and documented very thoroughly. Last year alone we documented about a hundred cases and this was mostly by the security forces," Sharma said. The army often report killings as "encounters" or "battles with Maoists", when after investigation it is clear that these are cases of extrajudicial killings, execution style.

"Often what happens is that we have strong evidence that people are held by the security forces and we file a case for a missing person with the court and then the court asks the authorities. But the authorities always, I think with one single exception, deny the arrest of the person," Sharma said. If the group provides further evidence, the court eventually may order the release of the person. Yet the security forces usually ignore the court order. "They always lie to the courts and the courts say they do not have any other options. There is a complete lack of the rule of law," Sharma said.

The police have reportedly begun to honour court orders to release illegally detained prisoners, but the RNA is still resisting the legal authority of the judiciary. On September 26, an 18-yearold boy named Govinda Damai was rearrested by the security forces from Rajhena in Banke district just after a Nepalgunj Appellate Court order released him from illegal detention. His whereabouts are still unknown. Earlier, on September 19, 16-year-old Jimdar Kewat and his 50-year-old father Keshu Ram Kewat were also re-arrested after the court ordered their release on the same day.

Incidents of rape have also increased. In one of the most disturbing cases a 12-year-old was raped in an eastern village. She was handed over to the police for security reasons, where she was again raped in police custody. "There is no redress for these victims or even a safe place for the victims when even in the police station this can happen. This is increasing. Not a single case has been investigated. They operate under complete impunity," Sharma said.

Impunity is one of the biggest problems faced in protecting civilians, including children, in the conflict. In the rare instances when there is some form of court martial or disciplinary process of a violation committed by the security forces, it is never transparent. It is always kept secret in the name of military code despite that the crimes should fall under the civilian criminal code and the jurisdiction of the courts.

Pyakurel said that while the RNA broke the law, for example by ignoring a court order to release illegally detained people, the government had formed a committee to investigate into cases of disappearances. Yet at the same time the authorities try to hide and shield the RNA doing illegal work. "They say that the present law is not enough to tackle the Maoist insurgency. That is why they have to undermine due process of law. . .If they are violating the law, that is a crime and a violation of human rights. There should be no excuse for the state to undermine the due process of the law. The RNA does not follow due process."

"We don't have any elected institutions now," Pyakurel said, "we don't have a parliament, so the government does not feel accountable to the people. There is no place to discuss all these things."

The King's Power

Although the current government is showing some willingness to tackle human rights violations and improve the rule of law, this has had very little effect in practice so far as the RNA does not appear to be under the control of the government but rather is loyal to the king, whose interests do not always correspond with the interests of the government and the people.

Pyakurel said the Nepali constitution provided immunity to the royal family. "The army is an extremely pro-monarchy army, it is not a people's army, it is not even a modern nationalist army, it is a royal army," Bose echoed. 

"The army is led by very high elite who has nothing but contempt for the court. It is based on privileges on their places of birth, from their clan. They will come into the belief that the more fire power they have the stronger they are and therefore their ability to crush the Maoists militarily will become more and more real. So, as they will become more and more militaristic, they will fall back on its old institutions of feudal days," Bose said.

The international community and the NHRC do face a major problem in promoting and protecting human rights because essentially the king and the army have almost all the power. Nagging and pressuring the government, while necessary, has its limits in what may be accomplished. "And the king is not exactly inviting any human rights activists over for a chat!" said the former international rights adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The conflict in Nepal is of a triangular nature with the king and the army on one side, the Maoists on another and the government and political parties on the third-all pulling against each other. The real war is between the king, backed by the army, and the Maoists as they have the genuine power and the use of deadly force. These two sides are becoming more militarised, and with that they also become more corrupt. Increasing shares of resources are spent on military hardware on both sides. "The longer there is a lack of a democratic system and the public accountability and watchdogs that come with democracy, the greater risk Nepal runs of being completely militarised. In rural parts of the country, a generation is coming of age who has not known democracy and dreams one day of marching victoriously into the cities to crush their 'enemies'. It is a frightening scenario that has already played out in Cambodia and parts of Africa," the adviser said.

Int'l Intervention 

Thus far, the international community, particularly India and the United States, has done little to help Nepal find a peaceful solution to the conflict, save making sure the RNA is armed to the teeth. India and the United States have both supplied the Nepali army with huge amounts of military aid, which, according to human rights activists and other observers, only contribute to increasing human rights violations and the militarisation of the country. 

"India's main interest coincides with the (Nepali) palace and the army. The main problem that they share together is the threat of the Maoists or the left-wing extremists. I think India is probably the largest supporter and supplier of military equipment, though sometimes you hear that the Americans are the biggest. Either way, it is seriously alarming," Bose said.

"A lot of money and military aid has been coming from the United States. I'm sure the law of the United States also prohibits the support of a conflict where the support is used for the violation of human rights. They have to understand this and engage in a very constructive way rather than support the militarisation of Nepali society," Sharma said.

There are mixed opinions over whether any international intervention or mediation is needed in Nepal. Bose is sceptical that international intervention would help the Nepali people at the end of the day. "Who would intervene? Most likely India or China, with or without the United States. I don't see that intervention would have the interests of the Nepali people as a force. They have their own interests. India is interested in maintaining its control over the Nepali economy, maintaining a government in Nepal that is pliable and easy to control," Bose said. China does not mind the Indians having a greater influence over Nepal as long as India or Nepal does not start interfering or becoming the hotbed of Tibet's resistance movement, he added. India has made it very clear they would not allow that to happen. In return, the Chinese have stopped supporting the Indian insurgents in the northeast. "To what extent would the interests for the Nepali people be the prime concern of any intervention by India or China?" Bose questioned.

Nevertheless, the international community recently has been more unified in calling for a peaceful solution to the conflict and a crackdown on human rights abuses in Nepal. After the NHRC reported on the further deterioration of the human rights situation and the unacceptable behaviour by both the RNA and the Maoists in late September, the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries expressed their deep concern over the situation. Political objectives cannot legitimately be pursued through acts of rampant and arbitrary violence and destruction, they said. They called on the government and the Maoists to sign the human rights accord, a NHRC initiative, to create an environment of trust and pave way for the peace process.

Achieving a Lasting Peace

Yet Bose and SAFHR do not believe in any short-term quick fixes. "You can bring in foreign powers and the U.N. to intervene but I have not seen this method being very successful, including in Iraq, and I don't think history has given us any reason to believe that such intervention actually helps in bringing about a long-term change," he said. Rather, he believes it is the investment in and empowerment of the people that lead to long-lasting changes. For any foreign intervention to work there needs to be a strong ground swell for peace in the country among its people, as was the case in South Africa, for example, he said. Bose insists that the role of the nongovernmental organisations is to help start building a movement and investing in the people by making them understand what their role in society can be and helping them develop tools for survival. The people must be better equipped to know what to demand of their elected politicians and to force them to work for the people, and this learning takes time, he said.

Pyakurel and the NHRC, on the other hand, are supportive of a U.N. involvement because it is a credible and neutral organisation and the fact that few countries, perhaps with the exception of India, have significant political or economic interest in Nepal. But he agrees that before any intervention or mediation is possible, all sides in Nepal must be ready to sit down and negotiate. "We must realise that we cannot win the war," he said. "The international community, especially the human rights groups and the media must advocate for peace and show how people are suffering. They should expose the atrocities committed by the two sides (in Nepal)."

"It took us so long to let the international community know that these things were happening in Nepal so I think now that the U.N. is offering their support," said Sharma of the Advocacy Forum. "The government has been asking for support from so many countries for buying guns and weapons, why doesn't it also ask for help for the peace process?" she said. 

There are many parties to convince before international mediation can become a reality. The U.N. and its Secretary General Kofi Annan have offered their services and the Maoists have recently announced that they are in favour of such an involvement. But the government is against the proposal saying Nepal prefers to resolve the Maoist conflict on its own. India has also rejected a broader international involvement in the crisis, while the United States is not objected to some form of international facilitation, but does oppose any outright mediation.

Bose said peace is linked with democracy where people actually have control over their own lives. "What is peace building? Peace building is to empower the people. It is in fact to work with the people, give them the capacity to surely but gradually withstand the pressures, build their own space, expand and be in control of their own lives."

Like most other wars, the conflict in Nepal cannot be won with guns. There will be no peace until all sides fully respect human rights and decide to sit down and talk peace and restore full, true democracy. There is no other way.