This document contains:
1) Himsa Birodh Abhiyan Press Note on Unsafe Highways
2) Discussion Summary from Reporters? Club briefing
(For Image of Highway with Mine Blast Impact on highway,
write to ahimsanp@hotmail.com)
Press Note, Himsa Birodh Abhiyan, 19 November 2004
Group Asks Maoists to stop mining highways
The Himsa Birodh Abhiyan in a statement today asked
the Maoist leadership and activists to desist from plasing
landmines and explosives and roads and highways of the
country.
The group states:
Travel along roads and highways has become a hazardous
and fearful activity due to the placement of landmines,
said to be targeted at the security forces but which in fact
also kill and maim ordinary citizens. Such an inhumane
activity not only destroys lives and property but also
terrorises the larger population.
The Maoist use of landmines on highways and roads
affects the fundamental right of the people to use public
space. Further, it is a blatant violation of international
humanitarian law.
We ask the Maoists to restore the right of the Nepali
people to travel the roads and highways without fear of
landmine attacks. The Maoists must immediately end
their practice of placing explosives on roads.
The danger to citizens escalates when security personnel
use public transport in order to protect themselves from
attack on highways. This was contributory, for example,
to the incidents in Dhankhola of Dang District and Maina
Pokhari of Dolakha District. We believe it is
inappropriate for the security forces to use public
transport vehicles other than for the express purpose of
providing security to the passengers within.
Contact:
Kedar Sharma, 5545888. Kanak Mani Dixit, 5543333
+++
Discussion Summary. Himsa Birodh Abhiyan
The Reporter?s Club, Putali Sadak
19 November 2004
Himsa Birodh Abhiyan organised a press interaction on
?Highways and landmines? on 19 November at The Reporter?s
Club. Following is a summary of the points made by the
speakers.
PURNA SHOBHA CHITRAKAR, Coordinator of the Nepal
Campaign to Ban Landmines, recently back from a tour of the
Western Tarai, described the trauma faced by travellers on
roads booby-trapped with explosives by the Maoists. She
reported the different ways in which with the explosive devices
were placed beneath the road surface and on the sides.
Sometimes there were explosives left lying by the roadside, she
said, and passenger vehicles had to traverse dangerous sections
not knowing what would happen.
?For thousands of travelers
in the districts daily, there is a situation of constant fear when
traveling the roads,? she said. Ms. Chitrakar provided the
numbers of deaths and maimings by landmines in general. She
said that while the security forces were also using landmines to
protect their positions, but the placement of landmines and
improvised explosive devices on the highways were mostly
done by the rebels.
Political columnist C K LAL pointed
out that the roads and highways of Nepal were a lifeline in
more ways than one. While the setting off of landmines and
explosive devices killed and maimed road users, the
obstruction of traffic also hindred traffic and impacted on the
economy in numerous ways.
The cost of rebhilding destroyed
bridges and road sections was prohibitive, he said. The use of
land mines and other explosives on public highways was
outside ethical boundaries. He agreed with the statement by
the Himsa Birodh Abhiyaan, that use of explosive devices on
Nepal?s highways must be condemned. He also agreed that
when armed forces used public transportation, the civilians in
the vehicles became human shields. ?We cannot know when
and how the war will end, but we must pressure both sides to
stay within ethical bounds in their fighting,? said Mr. Lal.
KANAK MANI DIXIT, journalist and member of Himsa
Birodh Abhiyan, said that explosions on highways had become
as unremarkable as the reports of the daily death toll. This
passive acceptance was appalling, and it was necessary to
condemn the placing of landmines on public roads and
highways. While there were many problems that needed to be
highlighted in the context of the current violence, including by
the state security forces, the statement by the Himsa Birodh
Abhiyan today was directed at the Maoists and their increasing
use of improvised explosive devices on roads highways used
by the public.
This put innocents in danger and was simply
unacceptable. Besides the trauma faced by the victims of the
explosions, there was the cumulative fear of tens of thousands
of citizens who travel on the highways every day, knowing
they are booby-trapped. A clear message needs to be sent to
the Maoists in this regard that they not recklessly endanger the
lives of civilians and remain within the bounds of international
humanitarian law.
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