Sending a Message From Washington To Katmandu
By Nora Boustany (washingtonpost, May 11)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/10/AR2005051001670.html
Nepalese from across the United States will gather at LaFayette Square at noon Sunday to protest their monarch's revocation of democracy, press freedom and human rights. The gathering comes as many foreign governments are losing patience with King Gyanendra and his harsh tactics against a Maoist insurgency in the Himalayan nation.
Gyanendra suspended most democratic institutions in 2002 and declared absolute rule Feb. 1. Human rights activists, student leaders and politicians have been disappearing by the thousands as the military suppresses dissent and criticism of the palace, while pursuing the Maoists in the mountainous countryside with increasingly brutal force.
Sujata Koirala , a member of the Nepali Congress party and daughter of former prime minister G.P. Koirala , will be joining the protesters Sunday. She has direct experience with the violence in her country -- she was almost killed this winter when a bomb exploded at her house in Nepal. She blames the attack on the army.
Nepal's former ambassador to the United Nations, Murari Raj Sharma , will address the crowd. "People look over their shoulders before opening their mouths" in Nepal, he said in a statement. "They are frightened."
On Monday, Gareth Evans , president of the advocacy organization International Crisis Group, sent a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair , Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan , urging concerted action to restrict military aid to Nepal until democracy is restored.
After Gyanendra declared absolute rule, India and Britain suspended military assistance to the country of 25 million and broke off diplomatic relations. But the United States did not cut off its $22 million military aid package, which is used to purchase M-16 rifles and finance military intelligence training, among other things.
The letter from the International Crisis Group said conflict in Nepal has intensified since Feb. 1, with at least 655 people killed. State security forces "were responsible for at least 530 of those deaths, many apparently innocent civilians, and the Maoists have killed 125 people, many of these also civilians," the letter said.
"King Gyanendra's self-imposed 100-day deadline to restore order and lay out a road map for democracy and peace in Nepal will pass on 11 May, with only limited progress towards these aims," the letter said. The king officially ended absolute rule last week, but human rights groups say that arrests and killings continue.
Christina Rocca , U.S. assistant secretary of state for South Asia, arrived in Nepal Monday and is scheduled to meet Gyanendra to press for a return to democracy.
An advocacy director at Amnesty International, T. Kumar , urged Rocca "not to miss the opportunity to send a strong message to the king that the United States will not sit silently and provide any military assistance until restoration of human rights and democracy in Nepal."
Yesterday, after Rocca publicly called for the restoration of democratic liberties in Nepal, the government freed four detained opposition politicians and India said it would partially resume the military aid it had suspended, according to the Associated Press.
The insurgency dates to 1996, when Maoists bent on abolishing the established order, beginning with the monarchy, began a campaign in the countryside. They capitalized on disgruntlement with a system that had concentrated money, land and power in the hands of high-caste Hindus and a few tribal chiefs loyal to the monarch.
The rebels have extended their power by raiding police stations, seizing guns and extorting money from business owners. In the meantime, the king has struggled to respond. He dissolved parliament in 2002 and has fired three prime ministers, moves that are not sanctioned by the Nepalese constitution.
Today, Nepalese villagers are often trapped between the gun muzzles of insurgents who demand food and lodging, and soldiers who come looking for the rebels. Before the soldiers leave, they often line up farmers and execute them for suspected complicity, according to Dinesh Prasain , a human rights activist from Nepal.
"The army justifies its human rights violations by saying, 'Look how brutal the Maoists are,' and they are," Prasain said. "But since 1996, 12,000 people have died. The state security forces have killed close to 7,800 Nepalese while the Maoist rebels have killed about 4,200, a ratio of two to one." The figures have been documented by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the United Nations and other organizations.
"We understand the role of the army is to fight the insurgency, but it also has to be accountable to the people of Nepal and respect human rights and international humanitarian terms and conditions," said Prasain, a sociologist.
Two million people have moved to neighboring countries as refugees, Prasain said. In February, he joined that list, fleeing to India with four members of his Collective Campaign for Peace, a coalition of 40 organizations. By his account, hundreds of activists continue to report on human rights violations through an underground network.
It remains risky work. Last Thursday, Gagan Thapa , a student leader, was snatched by police as soon he was released by court order. "They have this revolving-door system," said Prasain.
Now Prasain is in the United States, brought here by Nepalese Americans in an effort to raise awareness of the crisis in his country.
"I really would like to go back," he said, "but what good would I do in jail?"
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