Asia Times: Poor trapped by insurgency


	June 17, 2000	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

Poor trapped by insurgency
By Suman Pradhan

KATHMANDU - It was a long march for the over 200 men, women and children who have walked from their far away villages to the capital of Nepal in search of a safe home. However, their 700 kilometer trek across the hot and dusty plains of southwestern Nepal was easier than their quest for an end to the violence that drove them out of their ancestral residence.

''We came here seeking help but the nation's leaders are not interested in our plight,'' said Anil Yogi, chairman of the Maoist-Affected Peoples' Forum that brought the 217 people, 49 of them women and children, to Kathmandu. ''How long are they going to keep us waiting here, we don't know.''

The group fled their homes to escape the violent ultra-left insurgency that has troubled one of Nepal's poorest regions since early 1996, claiming more than 1,400 lives. They walked for 28 days from Chisapani in Kailali district to Kathmandu, where they have been living for the past two weeks under tents pitched outside the gates of the nation's Parliament. ''The Maoists suspect us of informing the police and the police suspect us of being sympathetic with the rebels,'' lamented one of the refugees, Rupa Devi Jaisi, a mother of two.

The Maoists want the national constitution to be changed to convert the Himalayan kingdom into a republic. The government says it is willing to talk with the rebels but within constitutional limits, thus ruling out their demand. Two rounds of talks have been derailed because the rebels do not want to give up their goal of abolishing the constitutional monarchy.

The insurgency has so far been confined to the rural western districts, which have the highest levels of poverty and illiteracy in Nepal. The leaders of the people camping outside Parliament, where lawmakers are debating the annual budget, want the government to recognize them as internal refugees.

''The government should grant us internal refugee status and provide us with land to settle somewhere else. Or they should resolve the insurgency so that we can return home,'' demanded Yogi. He said that should the government not help them, the displaced villagers would have no choice but to cross the border over into India. So far, the government has ignored them. Government leaders suspect the people of trying to escape the harsh poverty in their homes and seeking a better life elsewhere.

While there has been no government statement so far, a series of newspaper articles in recent days is seen to convey the official viewpoint. ''These are not displaced people, but villagers seeking an easy way to get hold of land in the [fertile southern] Terai [plains],'' said an article in the pro-government Kantipur Daily.

However, the people camping outside Parliament have denied the charge. All of them own land in their villages and some even have a proper education. They would have stayed back if the violence had not broken out, the group argue. ''Our girls were getting raped whenever they went to the jungle to collect firewood. It was either by the Maoists or the police. Why else do we need to flee if not for such atrocities?'' asked 25-year-old housewife Savitri Shahi.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have accused both rebels and government troops of excesses in the areas affected by the Maoist insurgency. So far, only one prominent leader from the ruling Nepali Congress party - former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba - has talked to the people camping outside Parliament.

Deuba, who heads a high level government panel that is seeking a dialogue with the Maoists, tried to reassure the villagers that the government was expecting a breakthrough in the peace bid. ''The Maoists have sent three of their representatives to talk with us. We will soon be talking with them to end the violence so that these people can return to their homes,'' he said.

(Inter Press Service)

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