Introduction

In the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal, in the last four years, a Maoist insurgency has spread over more than half of Nepal. The Peoples War launched in 1996 has spread from three districts to 45 of Nepal's 75 districts. In the epicenter of the Maoist affected areas, the police have virtually retreated and there is the threat of the Maoists proclaiming a Republic in four remote mid western hill districts. The army has not been called out, though pressure is mounting in the face of a demoralized and ineffective police force. Proposals are being mooted to raise a paramilitary force and arm the police with more sophisticated weapons and training. Currently an 'armed security force' of about 15,000 personnel recruited from the army and the police is being set up. (Independent Kathmandu 12-18 April 2000). Two Companies of Police force have been given counter insurgency and jungle warfare training. The security budget has been increased by nearly 25 %.

Moves to introduce emergency laws have so far been defeated by an alert and active human rights community which has been exposing arbitrary arrests, killings, torture and rape by the police in the name of combating the Peoples War. Recently, a statutory Human Rights Commission of Nepal has been set up. As remote backward hill districts are being transformed into guerrilla zones and 'base areas', police have resorted to massive repression on predominantly poor peasant minority ethnic groups of Nepal.

The Maoists, too have been responsible for scores of killing, mutilations, abductions and intimidation of local political leaders and destruction of government property. So far the level of violence has been limited, with 303 rifles, sawn off muskets, khukris (Nepali knife) and farm implements. However, the police are now being armed with self loading automatic weapons. Nepali Foreign Minister Chakra B Bastola has claimed that the Maoists are getting arms from India and are supported by the Peoples War Group. According to conservative police sources 1200 people have been killed and 2500 wounded and thousands displaced. According to the Chairman of the Association of Insurgency Affected, Ganesh Chilwal, 60,000 people have been displaced (Katmandu Post June 6, 2000)

In Kathmandu, the authorities have responded to the Maoist challenge as essentially a law and order problem. Lip service has been paid by successive government's in Nepal to the need for a political and developmental response but without any real political backing. In the last couple of months, the Nepali Congress government has been sending confusing signals for talks with the Communist Party Nepal (Maoist) which apparently the Maoist have not rejected. The Maoists are demanding removal of Nepal's Constitutional Monarchy, transformation in the feudal agrarian structure of land relations, rights for downtrodden nationalities and women and repeal of unequal treaties with India. The failure of the restoration of democracy in 1990 to bring into existence a multi party system that could promise even the hope of change for the majority of Nepal's poor has radicalized politics. The CPN (Maoist) had been part of a broad Communist coalition which had contested the 1991 elections and emerged as a third force in Parliament. Frustrated at the failure of parliamentary politics to make a difference in the people's grinding poverty, one Communist faction embarked upon armed struggle in the most backward and underdeveloped regions where the discriminated indigenous and ethnic groups live. It is here that the Maoists are strongest. Two thirds of the guerrillas come from Tibetan Buddhist ethnic groups and a third of the fighters are women in the Peoples War.

SAFHR's e-brief will focus on the impact of violence on the people caught between the escalating violence of Police and Maoist terror. In particular, there is a special focus on women, recruitment of children in the Maoist movement and the plight of the displaced.

Impact of the Maoist War
Since February 1996 when the Peoples War was launched, 45 of Nepal's 75 districts have been affected. People have been direct victims of the violence of the Police and the Maoists as well as indirect victims of deprivation following the dislocation of state, INGO and NGO development activities and health and education services. Thousands have been displaced. Economic activities also have been hit and production affected in this subsistence agrarian economy. Also, as we shall see, in the worst affected areas when the terror was at an extreme whole villages were denuded of men with women taking over non traditional activities like ploughing, State support is available only to victims of Maoist violence.

However, it should be mentioned that in areas where the Maoists are in control. the state administration has virtually retreated and it is the Maoists who are running basic services, peoples courts, schools and health centers. An all women's journalists team which had toured Rolpa and Rukum in May 1998 had found that in Rolpa district HQ of Libang, the revenue office had not had any new cases for months. People were going to the Maoists Peoples Courts. Subsequently Nepali journalist Sudhir Sharma in a special report on the four districts under Maoist control, has written in 'Nepali Himal' weekly (July 16-30, 2000) that in place of the state system of elected Village Development Committee (VDC) the Maoists are setting up Village Peoples Committee i.e. in place of the gavisa (gaon vikas samiti)- one now hears gajasa ( gaon jana samiti). VDC members who were camping in district headquarters in the shadow of the police post, were being encouraged to return, that is unless they were declared enemies of the Maoists.

However, with the authorities getting ready to mount a new office, there is increasing fear of escalating violence and terror. "Jan Satha" a publication close to the Maoists has written about a secretly planned offensive called "Silent Kilo Sera-3". Two earlier, Police Operations have exemplified police terror, Operation Romeo and Operation Kilo Sera -2. In Rolpa, one of the four worst affected districts, police terror unleashed during Operation Romeo 1995, a year before the People's War, was the single most important reason responsible for many peasants, women and men, to join the Maoists. The ruling Nepali Congress used the police to frame trumped up charges against supporters of their rival the Communist United Peoples Front. 1000 people were arrested. As clashed flared up the police launched Operation Romeo in November 1995. It drove 10,000 of the 20,000 able bodied men into the jungle to escape police atrocities. In Mirule village, a day walks from Libang the district hq of Rolpa, there were no men to be seen when the women's team, referred to above, visited the area in 1998. To escape being picked up by the police or targeted by the Maoists as suspected police informers, the villagers had become 'farari, melting into the surrounding jungles to join the Maoists or to swell the ranks of migrant labor in India and the Gulf.

Operation Kilo Sero -2 launched in 1998 became a byword for extra judicial killings disappearances, arbitrary arrests, rape and torture documented by both Nepali human rights groups and international groups like Amnesty International.

Women and Violence
In conflict situations, it is a truism that women are the worst victims of conflict, both as direct victims of violence, in particular sexual violence but also as victims of indirect violence as they have primary social responsibility for managing survival and care for children and the aged. Women of all ages are targets, but adolescent girls are especially vulnerable since they may be thought less likely to have sexually transmitted diseases.

Reports of incidents of gang rape by the police are common as documented by a leading Nepali human rights group INSEC. In one incident, a woman, from Rukumkot Sherma VDC, Rukum was gang-raped by patrolling police party on June 3. 1998. On the same day, the villagers reported yet another incidence of gang rape at Peuchha VDC. The police on patrol of Shibakhola Police Post arrested an 18-year-old woman from Saklakot VDC, Jajarkot on June 12, 1998. She was later shot dead after being raped. INSEC yearbook 2000. Rape is routine. 12 women 'Maoists' being held in Lalitpur (Kathmandu) jail from Gorkha district, interviewed by two Nepali women journalists in 1998, reportedly said that they had all been raped.

In Nepal, in the mid western hill districts, whole villages have been denuded of men. Seasonal migration with one out of every two homes involved was a common feature in this subsistence area. But now the men have not come back. Women are left to face alone the predatory aggression of the police (and the Maoists) who come in search of their men folk. Also in the absence of men in the village the women have been obliged to take up the male role of ploughing and roofing their houses. Traditionally women in Nepali society do not do these jobs. Women are also doubly vulnerable as it is they who have to feed and shelter the Maoists who come at night, and then come the police, as illustrated in an interview with a displaced person cited below.

Police harassment and terror has driven many women to join the Maoists. Others like Sangeeta Budha, a resident of Rolpa district, have become Maoists to avenge the killing of an 'innocent' husband. He was killed by the police in 1997. Also, the People's War ideology promises property rights for women and many of the Maoist action on the ground have been targeted at getting justice for Nepali women and promoting an anti liquor campaign. Women have flocked to the Maoist movement in large numbers drawn by the liberatory promise of the revolutionary ideology. (Nepal ranks at the bottom of the gender index for South Asia). A third of the guerrillas in the most affected areas are women. The People War has specifically directed its propaganda to mobilize rural women. General Secretary of the CPN, Prachanda in a recent interview to RIM has spotlighted the importance of women in the Maoist movement. In each guerrilla squad the People's War has reportedly made it a policy of recruiting at least two women guerrillas. The result has been that women have become direct targets of the police as evident in the increase in the number of women killed by the police.

Victims of Crossfire

A recent incident in June, of a Maoist attack on a police post spotlighted the vulnerability of women and children getting caught in the crossfire. The attack on the makeshift police post in the house of a village farmer in Panchkatia village, in Jajarkot district claimed the lives of 25 persons, 12 policemen, six guerrillas and seven civilians which included five young children. 36 were injured. Below is an extract from a reporter of Kantipur who visited the area. The English translation appeared in Nepali Times 28 June - 6 July 2000

"Police started to fire, we could not get out of our house," said Rana Bahadur, still in shock three days after the tragedy. "As soon as the police ordered us to close the door, our world collapsed around us. I lost everything. I do not know how I survived." Ran Bahadur weeps uncontrollably: "I could not even conduct the final rites of my children." When the walls of the house collapsed, his wife was crushed with the children still in her lap.

"A guerrilla with No. 36 emblazoned on his uniform in yellow said: "this police post was engaged in the brutal repression since the commencement of Peoples War. It had to be destroyed according to the instructions of our party. That is why our Platoon No. 3 attacked this post" (The Maoists claim that they had given a warning before the attack)

Police under pressure
The Panchkatia incident has led to a progressive demoralization of the police. Nepali journalist Sudhir Sharma, after visiting the area wrote in Himal magazine, that in the four districts, Rolpa, Rukum, Jajarkot and Salyan, the police has withdrawn many police post from these area. In Rukum district there were 23 police post now they have only six police posts, in Jajarkot the number of police post has decreased to six from 15, and in Rolpa there are only eight police posts where there were 39. Police sources claim that the new strategy is to concentrate the police in fewer posts. The police deployed in these area, according the Nepali Himal report are more concerned staying alive, than worrying about the security of the public. The Maoist are now openly in control over these four districts.

Army in the Maoist affected area:
According to the Himal report, the army has been deployed in some of the Maoist effected area but in road building and other development activities. There are around 300 army personnel in Jajarkot district. Taking on the Maoists is not their task. In contrast to the dreaded image of the police, the army is engaged in winning hearts.

Recruitment of children
Children are the most vulnerable victims of the ongoing conflict. Some have fallen victims to a generalized violence against civilians caught between police and Maoist terror; others suffer the indirect effect of violence or the multiple deprivations. Many have been displaced. Health programmes have been dislocated and in the most affected districts like Rolpa there has been a break in the immunization programme. Schooling, too has been disrupted as teachers have been picked up and arrested or are too scared to report at their posts. (Maoists are running schools in some areas like Thabang, Rolpa). NGO and INGO work has come to a halt, especially after the attacks on SCF (USA) and other INGOs. Ironically it was the raising of consciousness by these organizations through adult literacy programmes and income generation micro projects which facilitated the spread of the Maoist ideology. Indeed in the better developed Gorkha (Pokhra) district, there is a repeat of the Nicaraguan phenomenon of girls in the literacy classes when they are 13 and in the militias when they are 14. Young people exposed to the thinking of radicalized teachers and older students are particularly susceptible to the Maoist ideology. In Gorkha district, parents fearful of their sons becoming Maoists or getting picked up by the police have been sending them out of the district. Their places in school have been taken up girls. 50% of all students are girls in the village district schools according to Sancharika a Nepali women's organization .

A report 'Children enlisted by Maoist workers', in The Kathmandu Post (June 8, 2000) gives an insight into the large scale recruitment of school going children in the Peoples War. A 12-year-old girl student of Daurikanda, village Khalanga, Jajarkot district was persuaded by Maoist workers to go with them to the forest. Similarly, another student of class 5, Sabitra Adhikari, (12) was also enlisted in the "Peoples's War". However, the Maoists declined to acknowledge this to their teacher or parents. She was reportedly seen roaming in the forest.

The number of school children below 15 years of age in the armed groups of the Maoist has been increasing. Five boys and three girls of Shiva Primary School of Daurikanda, village Khalanga -9, have gone underground. Parents are worried and many of them have taken their children away and readmitted them to Brahmapur Primary School at ward No. 8 or to Bageswori Primary School. As a result in Shiva primary school, three teachers are teaching five students.

From Shankar Bhawan Secondary School, the Maoist workers took away to the forest ,six boys and three girl students, ages between 11 to 14 years. From Kalika Primary School of Dinga village, workers of CPN (Maoist) reportedly took away three boys and two girls students. From Dipendra Primary School in the same ward, two girl students and from Bageswori primary School, two others from class 4, have reportedly joined the Maoists. Guardians are in a big dilemma whether to send their children to school or not.

Young children have been cynically exploited as combatants. The Maoists on their website specifically welcome the fact that the women come to their meetings with children, who will go on to be future recruits. The Maoists have not acknowledged the fact that the use of children as soldiers should be considered unlawful. They are being killed and maimed. Nepal is a party to Child Rights Convention (CRC) but has failed to respect and uphold the rights of the children. The victims mainly come form the margalised groups, economically and socially deprived children. Children who have seen their father or brother arbitrarily picked up by the police are driven by revenge or turn farari to escape police harassment. But most are darwn by the Maoist ideology which alone speaks for the poor and marginalized in Nepal's political system.
 

With children joining the Maoist movement, they have become easy targets of the police.

Children killed by Police and Maoists
The list below shows that 42 children have been killed, 32 by the police force and 10 by the Maoist, Among the 42 children 27are male and 15 are female. The number of children being killed are increasing, in the year 1996 only two children were killed and in the first 6months of June 2000 seven children have been killed.

Children killed by Police

Children Killed by the Maoists:

Source: Impact of armed conflict on children and families, INHURED International& INSEC, May2000

Displaced persons: appeal for resettlement
A group of 240 people displaced from the mid west and far west districts of Nepal, by Maoist and police repression, are staging a protest at Bhadrakali, Kathmandu in an effort to draw the attention of the government. These 240 persons who are on a "sit-in-strike" at Bhadrakali in Kathmandu, are part of a group of about 3000 persons who had to flee their homes and taken shelter in Lamki, Kailali eight months ago. They have walked all the way to Kathmandu to beg for a secure shelter. They claim that they have been displaced from their homes as a result of the government's counterinsurgency operations. "We are in dilemma either way, neither can we go with the Maoist nor can we fight against them", a displaced person said to SAFHR interviewer, Jagat Acharya.

At present there are 216 people living in Bhadrakali, a most congested and polluted area. There are 10 children below 10 years and about 40 women. They share the same tent with the men. They have plastic sheets for mattress and the tent serves as a quilt. They live on whatever donations they get. It is rainy season in Kathmandu and one can imagine their plight as everything gets wet.

Jaya Krishna Sanjel a displaced person says that back in the village, freedom of movement is restricted. People from one village apparently cannot go to another. If anyone is seen moving about they draw the unwelcome attention of the Maoists and the police. Anybody new becomes the suspicious target of both groups.

Ms. Chanda Yogi, (30) was staying with her 4 children in Labu V.D.C. -3. She says that at night the Maoist used to come and demand food and shelter. If she refused, they would threaten her with a khukri. During the day the police threatened the villagers with guns. She said there were many rape cases in the area. In one house the police raped three women and now they have given birth to babies. When the Maoist killed a leader of the Nepali Congress, the police raided the whole area and hundreds of innocent persons were arrested and imprisoned. Among these were 10 young girls who were tortured and raped. After they were released these young girls joined Maoist movement. The displaced people at Bhadrakali claim that the government is responsible for the continuation of war.

Ramita Yogi (8), along with her parents is one of the displaced staging a sit-in at Bhadrakali. She said, she would like to study but the atmosphere makes it impossible and there is no cash for children like her to study.

Their hopes of an early settlement by the government is gradually giving way to despair as the food stocks dwindle and no help is forthcoming. The government has shown little interest in solving the problem of the displaced persons. Home Minister Govind Raj Joshi claims that the people who have been camping out at Bhadrakali, are not victims of the Maoists and Police action but are trying to get land in the Terai district. " If these people can prove that they have been affected, then the government is ready to provide them with compensation," the Minister said. (The Kathmandu Post , June 21, 2000)

Background on the Communists Party Nepal ( Maoist)

Nepal has a long tradition of Left politics. Politicians of the Nepal Communist Party, founded in 1949, spent many years in prison or in exile in India during the Panchayat System of government in Nepal between 1860 and 1990. In the late 60s, inspired by the Cultural Revolution in China and the Naxalite movement in India, an armed peasant insurrection took place in eastern Nepal known as the Jhapa Movement. The army in a counter-insurgency operation in 1971 killed many members. During the Peoples Movement (Jana Andolan) for the Restoration of Democracy from 1989-90, the Maoists joined a seven member left coalition called the United Peoples Front. With the collapse of the absolute monarchy, a multiparty democracy was established in Nepal in 1990. However, even after the downfall of the Panchayat system the problems of the people from backward regions remained unresolved. In the districts like Rukum, Rolpa, Salyan, Jajarkot, in the mid west, the degree of alienation increased. Moreover, UPF activists were victimized by the police and the ruling party Nepali Congress leaders.

The United People's Front (UPF) which had contested the 1991 elections emerging as the third largest group in Parliament, decided in 1994 to boycott the general elections. The oppression and discrimination against the UPF activists continued. The UPF then decided to lunch a movement called Sija movement. The Police were mobilized to crush the Sija Movement in 'Romeo Operation'. A large number of UPF supporters were arrested, imprisoned and tortured.

Birth of CPN (Maoist)
CPN Maoist group emerged from the splintering of Nepal's Left parties. In February 1995, the majority faction of the CPN (Unity Center) decided to prepare for the people's war to affect a people's democratic revolution. A 40 point demands memo was presented to the Prime Minister of Nepal through the political front UPF led by Dr. Bhattarai. Of the 40 points demand nine concerned issues of nationalism, like the Mahakali treaty and the open border between India and Nepal; 17 points dealt with monarchial privileges, discrimination against women and the oppressed nationalities and 14 concerned livelihood issues like land rights and corruption. If the demands were not fulfilled, Peoples War would be declared in February 1996.

On February 13, 1996, armed guerrillas attacked police posts and local administrative offices and the homes of local landowners and prominent members of the Nepali Congress Party. The Peoples War is now in its fourth year.

Political Initiatives

Talks with Maoist:
Successive governments of all parties have talked about talks with the Maoists. In the latest such initiative, former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, has been appointed head of a high powered committee to talk with the Maoists. In March 1996, Deuba then Prime Minister had requested political parties to help resolve the problem, but no progress was made. Subsequently, there have been several meetings and discussion at the government level but little progress made in beginning a dialogue. The government has looked at the Maoist movement essentially as one of the law and order and purely a terrorist movement.

With the Maoists gaining in strength, a special committee was set up on Dec 1, 1999 to initiate a dialogue with the Maoists. This announcement was preceded by a statement on October 12, 1999 by the Nepali Congress party President G P Koirala appealing to all parties to help solve the problem. He said "the need to come up with an appropriate mechanism to move forward to end the Maoist violence has now become imperative. Nepal, a small country cannot sustain itself for long if it allows such violence to continue without any check." He announced a three pronged strategy for dealing with it economically, politically and administratively though no specific details were revealed.

The underground CPN (Maoist) has accepted the government's invitation for the dialogue and sent a letter naming the people who would participate in the talks. The letter names two senior leaders of the rebel group Dr. Baburan Bhattrai, Mr. Krishna Bahadur Mahara and Mr. Ram Bahadur Thapa as representive of CPNin the talks. "The Prime minister has instructed that no matter who comes forward the government is open for dialogue". (The Kathmandu Post June 14, 2000) The government has yet to demonstrate a political commitment to the talks.

Government woos Surrendered Maoists
In August 99 the government announced a budgetary allocation of 30 million Nepali rupees to finance implementation of the Ganesh Man Singh Peace Campaign aimed at the rehabilitation of Maoist activists who surrendered and the payment of relief to victims of the CPN (Maoist). Also, a public security committee has been formed in 59 villages in five of the affected districts. The PSCs are responsible for alerting the nearest police post in the event of Maoist activity. A.I. Report 2000

Conclusion
There is very little likelihood that the problems can be addressed in the prevailing circumstances even though the budgetary allocations for the effected areas have been increased. There is a growing all party consensus that the police have failed to ensure law and order in the affected areas and that only a political solution is the answer. What the government has done in this regard is not satisfactory. The government has been sending confusing signals, on the one hand inviting Maoist for dialogue and on the other, planning to create a new Para military force. The Maoists too must demonstrate a political will to talk .

By Jagatmani Acharya