Murdered His Teenage Son Be Brought to Justice
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#726 26 September - 2 October 2014 20+4 pages Rs 50 Literary BE RIGHT BACK Times ho xf]; This Dasain Special of Nepali Times he country is closing down for the Dasain holidays, which will be comes with a 4-page pullout Nepali Times wishes its readers followed by Tihar and Chhat, then there is the SAARC Summit in prepared by Galli Salliharuma, a public writing project that archives and partners a joyful Dasain TNovember. It would have been tight even if it was just a question of personal stories to build a walking- holiday. The paper will take its crossting t’s and dotting i’s on the draft of the new constitution, but there breathing map of Kathmandu. are still some fundamental differences over the kind of federalism. Delays annual break next week, in constitution-writing and an effective transitional justice mechanism PAGE A-D so the next hardcopy edition cost Nanda Prasad Adhikari his life. In this special Dasain issue we will come to you on remember the abandoned victims of the conflict. Friday,10 October. Dasain is said to mark the victory of good over evil. CHILDREN However, you can follow us In Nepal, it looks like evil still has the upper hand. OF WAR online wherever and whenever. THE DEATH BY KUNDA DIXIT nepalitimes.com OF JUSTICE PAGE 16-17 EDITORIAL PAGE 2 DIWAKAR CHETTRI 2 EDITORIAL 26 SEPTEMBER - 2 OCTOBER 2014 #726 DEATH OF JUSTICE epal’s conflict ended eight years ago. But the war is raped your daughter, disregard the commissar or captain not finished as long as the pain of bereavement of If the perpetrators and the state showed who disappeared your brother, don’t you dare name those Nthe survivors remains, those whose relatives were even the slightest sign of remorse for who ran torture chambers. Because if you don’t, we will let disappeared still grieve, the wounded and displaced are the peace process collapse. So, they blackmail us with the left to fend for themselves. wartime atrocities, survivors may be willing threat of violence while the internationals look on. They The feudal Nepali state was a perpetrator of structural vilify human rights defenders and those who seek justice, violence. The Maoists, however misguided in their pursuit to forgive. But they will never forget. accusing them of being in the payroll of ‘foreigners’. They of an obsolete ideology, believed that only revolutionary insult, even in death, a father who suffered untold pain by violence could counter it. Had they tried to learn from refusing to eat for nearly a year demanding that those who history, they would have known that violence is never murdered his teenage son be brought to justice. the answer, that it breeds a cycle of vengeance. So it is The death of Nanda Prasad Adhikari this week has that today, the disgraced revolutionaries have no answer seriously smeared Nepal’s democratic credentials. It has when posed with the question: “What was it all for?” exposed the selective activists, a deceitful state, and an Nepal’s conflict had no victors and no vanquished. undependable international community which mysteriously Neither side won, the Nepali people lost and the refused to speak and act on a human rights issue country’s development was pushed back decades. And we that they were so passionate about till recently. How did are left with a legacy of violence and lawlessness during protecting the ‘process’ suddenly become more important this prolonged transition. Going from monarchy to republic than protecting ‘justice’? cannot be called ‘progress’ if it doesn’t make a difference In this special issue of Nepali Times which should to the people’s living standards, doesn’t create jobs, or be marking the festive season, we have tried to remind prevents us from being more inclusive and taking a ourselves of those forgotten and abandoned victims of great leap in development. The country was unilaterally the war. (See pages 6, 16-17, 19) Many are still waiting declared ‘secular’ without the people’s consent. for justice, minors who witnessed horrific violence are Federalism, touted as the biggest accomplishment of now troubled and destitute adolescents, no one hears the revolution, is just a slogan and has stopped meaning the silent cry of rape victims, and there are hundreds of true devolution and autonomy. Instead it threatens to families of the disappeared for whom every day without fragment an already disunited country. Whatever political closure is an occasion for fresh mourning. progress was credited to a war fought in the name of the If the perpetrators and the state showed even the people was not worth the blood that was shed and the slightest sign of remorse, if they took concrete steps to set sacrifices made. up a meaningful Truth and Reconciliation Commission Now, a state composed of war mongers from both and a Commission on Enforced Disappearances, there is a sides that visited such misery on the nation wants us to chance that the relatives of the victims and survivors would let bygones be bygones. Not only do they not want to say be willing to forgive. But they will never forget. sorry, they are forcing Nepalis to forget the past, or else. Dasain is said to mark the victory of good over evil. In Forget who executed your innocent father, don’t ask who Nepal, it looks like evil still has the upper hand. JAN MØLLER HANSEN YOUR SAY www.nepalitimes.com POLITICAL VACUUM integrity, to lead us (‘Extreme at both study, Nepal made the “fastest who go to the remotest parts of the THIS WEEK The various ills of Indian society ends,’ Anurag Acharya, #725). We progress” in reducing multidimensional country for little or no pay to deliver will be practiced unchecked and have no future under these corrupted poverty. The (hated) NGOs’ work, basic services are the real heroes unfettered if we give any autonomy leaders. especially on education and health, of Nepal. They are the driving force to the Tarai regions (‘Politics in M was actually key to making aspects behind Nepal’s impressive gains in a vaccum’, Editorial, #725). As of that poverty reduction possible. health and education. of now it is already infested with As a person with DNA and Sure, NGOs cannot solve all the Avishek Adhikari bride burning, dowry seekers, cultural ties to both sides of the problems of development, and some ISI sympathisers, and all kinds of border, I am fed up of Madhesi NGOs out there are indeed bad. But MUDDLE THROUGH unsavory elements. I don’t believe groups and leaders. They are these limitations do not mean that it’s Excellent editorial (‘Muddle-through the Madhesi people in the Tarai pursuing a very dangerous political all right to smear all NGOs with the economics’, Editorial, #724). Infl ation BIKRAM RAI have any loyalty to their leaders who agenda (just like our PKD did). They same black paint, saying that they are is the real threat, we can live with a JUSTICE DENIED: Nanda Prasad Adhikari, who practice divisive politics. However, have no sense of social justice and all alike. The larger point is: For the delayed constitution. had been on hunger strike for 11 months with wife demonising the region will only help building democratic institutions development ‘eco-system’ to thrive A Rawal Ganga Maya to demand justice for the murder of to drive them into the trap Mr Raut in the Tarai. The era of identity and fl ourish, it needs NGOs as much their son, died in Bir Hospital on Monday. has laid out for his people. We are politics is over. It has been rejected as it needs the government, private The key issue, I think, is lack of in need of a national leader who can by everyone, including those who sector, media, academia, youth groups investment, which is why there is Most liked on Facebook Thinking small by Kunda Dixit bring us together. professed it or voted for it a few and other such ‘species’. excess liquidity. Cutting interest rates Namah years ago. will not help increase investment, as Most shared on Facebook N the NRB seems to believe, because Justice denied The Brief Criminals are in charge of Nepali JAGANNATH ADHIKARI the reason there is no investment politics. Men without integrity or SELF-RELIANCE Looks like Jagannath Adhikari, a is prolonging political instability and Most popular on Twitter Red panda on the red list honour hold high level positions Anyone who thinks that NGOs can developmental consultant has written uncertainty, not high interest rates. by Sonam Tashi Lama in government. I wonder why the fi x problems is a fool (‘Relying on partial truths on Nepal’s Maoist Sorry to be a wet blanket, but it does honest men and women of the three self-reliance’, Ashutosh Tiwari, #725). movement (‘Under the shadow of the go back to writing the constitution on Most visited online page major parties are so meek and silent. NGO-wallas are here to create jobs red fl ag’, David Seddon, #725). That time and creating an atmosphere of Fly Gundruk Air by Ass By keeping quiet, they are also being for themselves and profi t in the name the Maoist movement ended without political certainty. Most commented seen as the same corrupt offi cials of the poor. If all Nepalis were lined a conclusion is a correct observation. Satya Nepali Politics in a vacuum Editorial they are in the company of. Just look up and handed over the equivalent of This is for two reasons: not a single of at Pushpa Kamal Dahal.