Nepali Times Was Abducted Wednesday by Maoists While Covering the Anti- Rebel Uprising in Kapilbastu

#238 11 - 17 March 2005 16 pages Rs 30 Free Pun JB Pun Magar, staff reporter of Himal Khabarpatrika and contributor to Nepali Times was abducted Wednesday by Maoists while covering the anti- rebel uprising in Kapilbastu. The investigative journalist had covered the recruitment of child soldiers by the Maoists (see ‘Giving children a fighting chance’, #227) but was also harrassed by the army in November. “He is a very professional journalist who is objective and fair even in the most challenging assignment, we demand his immediate release," said Himal editor, Rajendra Dahal, "it is unfortunate that the Maoists have detained him at a time when the state has also been harassing the media.” Weekly Internet Poll # 175 Q. Should mobile phones now be restored? Total votes:960 Weekly Internet Poll # 176. To vote go to: www.nepalitimes.com Q... How would you characterise everyday situation in Nepal in the past month? TEACHING A DOG NEW TRICKS: Nine-year-old German Shepherd, Sabbu, jumps through a flaming hoop for the benefit of spectators during Army Day on 8 March at Tundikhel as his minders look on. KUMAR SHRESTHA/NEPALNEWS.COM Terrorised students across Nepal prepare for final exams Fleeing school RAMESWOR BOHARA aimed at maximum disruption of retaliation by the rebels. in the villages. Teachers from in NEPALGANJ normal life. Meanwhile, Nepal’s donors districts across Nepal say “After the bombings, children who have been involved in hundreds of thousands of ven by the insane standards are still terrorised and distracted. supporting education have students haven’t been able to of Nepal’s conflict, They cannot concentrate on their reacted with outrage at sustained prepare E Nepalganj had not seen studies,” says a teacher from and deliberate attacks on the for their Editorial p2 anything like it: the bombing of Mahendra High School here. A school system. “It is unacceptable exams Something to hide? six schools last month to force high school student who doesn’t for conflict to enter the and it them to close. want to be named says: “I am classroom,” UNICEF’s Nepal looks like exams can only be held With the SLC exams due on afraid, what if they bomb us representative, Suomi Sakai, told in district headquarters for 27 March, more than 2,000 again?” us, “children, their families and security reasons. schools in the far west have begun Although the schools have teachers need to feel confident “We have not yet been able to to reopen after nearly a month. opened, they have done so in that schools are a safe haven, free finalise the exam centres due to More than 500,000 students had defiance of the Maoist call for a from violence and threats.” this situation,” explains Bishnu been affected by the Maoist strike and school authorities But if this is the situation in Prasad Thaiba, Banke DEO. threats, which seemed to be throughout the region fear Nepalganj, things are much worse More p4 11 - 17 MARCH 2005 #238 3 Kingdom Nepal’s ‘other’ half in shining armour is Pluralism is a prerequisite for peace and justice ‘regime change.’ Alternatively, the empire he Nepal tarai as an area of some madhesis found a place at Panchayat nationalism. based around the five symbols of could allow the kingdom to solve study is still a virgin their feet. But even they Patriotism during the first Nepalipan. the crisis and arrive at a T territory. Even though it is remained less than subjects, decade of the Panchayat regime Even today, while women, sustainable internal equilibrium. home to over half of all Nepalis with almost no contact with consisted of unconditional dalit, the poor, gays, janjatis, and These are stark but the only the region is little studied and their rulers in distant loyalty to ‘one language, one even foreigners married to pragmatic options for a speedy even less understood. Kathmandu Valley. Madhesis dress, one religion, and one Nepalis seek due recognition, end to the current suffering. What The tarai and madhes are needed visas to travel to their people under the all-powerful tarai-basis are still left out. The the majority of the Nepali people mistakenly used synonymously. own capital. monarchy’. But even when dominant Nepalipan model still desire is a quick liberation from Actually the tarai is a The imagination of Nepal as politics became a little more prevails over the concept of an violence and fear, it does not a nation is a relatively new open after the 1980 referen- egalitarian ‘Nepaliyata’. matter at this stage who is the STATE OF THE STATE phenomenon. It began as an dum, there was no let-up in The Maoists for their part are hero inside the shining armor is. CK Lal offshoot of the Indian the attempts of ‘Nepalising’ obsessed with the notion of class Diplomatic thumb-twiddling or independence struggle when madhesis. Those who couldn’t and are inherently incapable of the fancy to play the morally geographical area with different some articulate Gorkhalis in or refused to be assimilated in producing a blueprint of an blind killing-field umpire whose communities as its residents, Darjeeling and Kasi came up the mainstream were vilified as inclusive and democratic Nepali sole goal is to keep the macabre while madhesh is a cultural with the notion of Nepal as the anti-national or worse. Right identity. Their creation of game going will only prolong the space with madhesis as its fatherland of Nepalis up to the 1990s madhesi regional autonomous regions is a horrors for real people in the inhabitants. Ignorance alone, everywhere. Markers of this de- remained a derogatory term in PR exercise since totalitarianism name of abstract, discretionary however, doesn’t fully explain territorialised Nepali identity elite circles. is antithetical to the aspirations ideals. the apathy towards the tarai in were based on the monoculture The 1990 People’s of the left out. As currently deployed, the general and madhes in Movement raised hopes of an There can be no harmony Western human rights discourse - particular. Partly, it is a product of the Cold War - is because of the way aimed at undermining the powers the Nepali identity of the erstwhile Soviet and other has evolved over disaffected states to regulate the the centuries. lives of their citizens living in King Prithbi conditions of relative order. Narayan Shah In the context of Nepal’s total built modern breakdown of law and order, what Nepal upon the is needed at this point is a strength of his genuine concern for human life in determination and its physical sense—universalised that of his Gorkhali human rights will have meaning army. He later imagined his only when the state can ensure kingdom as a garden of ‘four the basic condition for the castes and 36 races’ that popu- concept of one language, one inclusive identity, but without the acceptance of material and biological integrity lated the hills and valleys of religion and one people. The couldn’t fulfil the aspirations multiple identities. Pluralism is of the human subject. Even Mahabharat range. Readings of Nepali language, Hinduism, a of the main externalised a prerequisite to peace and though these states are often his Dibya Upadesh reveal that martial tradition, an anti- population group of Nepal. The justice. The two-day interna- portrayed as antithetical to madhesis figured in his Indian self-description, and new constitution cites the tional conference on ‘Nepal human rights, the irony is that formulation primarily as the kingship are five symbols of upliftment of the marginalised Tarai: Context and Possibilities’ only stable, well-functioning ‘other’, the group to be feared. this new Nepalipan. When the through legal guarantees and that began Thursday is a pioneer- states can ensure the rights - After the transformation of Shah Restoration accepted this remedies, but it refuses to even ing effort to clear conceptual whether they be civil, human, or Kunwars into Ranas, Nepal’s formulation, even madhesis recognise that madhesis have confusions and lay the ground- economic—of their citizens. hereditary premiers ran the who were beneficiaries of the been systematically excluded work for more substantive tarai If it was any other way, the country as a family fiefdom. feudal state were pushed away. for centuries and gives studies in future. It is a time to stateless societies in Somalia and They needed madhesis to exploit After 1960, the promotion continuity to the assimilation end persistent externalisation of Congo would have been the forest and agricultural of a unified mainstream culture model of constructing a nearly half of the country’s considered utopias by now. resources of the tarai. Hence, became the kingpin of homogeneous Nepali identity population. New York Times last month that she got a like the ‘stated objective of India to I was shocked to read of the brief and work to bring spiritual growth to diplomat to escort her to the plane while strengthen the RNA’s capacity’ and detention of Himal Khabarpatrika’s Kanak everyone we influence, we can start to she fled Nepal into self-imposed exile? She ‘pressures that (India) can bring to bear to Mani Dixit. I wonder what advantage to enjoy peace in Nepal. A government does have a high opinion of the threat she get the parties on board’? The questions Nepal comes from the detention of editors appropriate to Nepal will naturally poses to Nepal’s national security. to the Indian ambassador should have and social workers who are loyally and follow. Anis Rayamajhi, email been ‘when are you handing over seriously working to find better ways to Rev G William Robins, SJ, Prachanda and Baburam to Nepal’, or ‘why help Nepal towards peace.

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