Ignoring Democracy in Nepal

By Reese Erlich, AlterNet. Posted April 20, 2006.

For the past two weeks, the streets of Nepal have filled with militant demonstrators demanding democracy. A transportation stoppage halted most passenger traffic and deliveries into the capital of Kathmandu. Food and other basics are in short supply.

Travel agents and employees even held a rally in the tourist district of Kathmandu to protest the King's policies and the wrecking of the tourism industry. The government periodically shuts down all cell phone service in an effort to disrupt the planning of demonstrations.

The anger at King Gyanendra's dictatorship runs so deep, it is surprising even top opposition leaders. In numerous interviews, those leaders condemned the king's policies but few thought he could be toppled anytime soon.

Chakra Bastola, a top leader of the Nepali Congress Party who was interviewed before the general strike began, said the king will likely stay in power for a while. The king "could always be tempted to be harsher and stay put," he said.

But the general strike that has mobilized so many may just prove that Bastola and other leaders are being too pessimistic.

The general strike and transport stoppage was supported jointly by the seven major parliamentary parties and the Maoist guerrillas. The guerrillas even called a military ceasefire in the Kathmandu area so as not to give the government an excuse to shoot unarmed demonstrators by claiming they were "guerrilla infiltrators."

That didn't stop the police and army from firing on demonstrators, killing many, injuring hundreds and jailing over 3,000. For several days, the government clamped a total daytime curfew on Kathmandu. The streets were eerily empty, with military and police checkpoints posted throughout the city. Yet, at the appointed time, thousands of demonstrators came out of their homes. For the moment, all the opposition forces are united in calling for the king to give up power -- a radical shift considering that, for the past two centuries, the kings of Nepal have been considered gods. The call constitutes a major policy shift for mainstream political parties, but it is pressure from ordinary Nepalis that is fueling the movement.

"A lot of youth are for a republic," said Sujata Koirala, another top leader of the Nepali Congress, the largest parliamentary party. The interview took place inside a police station because she had just been arrested for leading a nonviolent demonstration. "If the king goes on like this, I think there will be no king in Nepal."

Nepal's kings haven't been acting very godly lately. In June 2001, according to official accounts, Crown Prince Dipendra murdered 11 members of the royal family, including the king. The crown prince then committed suicide. The murdered king's brother, Gyanendra, then took power.

Five months later King Gyanendra got rid of the parliament and appointed a cabinet. People had become disgusted with the corrupt and power-hungry parliamentary parties, so the king had some popular backing for his dissolution of parliament. But in February 2005, King Gyanendra arrested some of his handpicked ministers and seized absolute power in alliance with the military.

The government banned all news from FM radio stations, the most popular and progressive media in the country. Uniformed military officers sat in every print and broadcast newsroom to censor the news. While the officers left the newsroom after a few months, the official censorship decree remains on the books, and journalists engage in substantial self-censorship.

Ian Martin, head of the U.N. High Commission for Human Rights in Nepal, says human rights abuses are widespread. Political detainees and common criminals are regularly tortured. "I'm afraid torture is systematic, routine and widespread," he told me in an interview.

I scheduled an interview with one of Nepal's leading journalists, Kanak Dixit. When I arrived at the offices of his Himal South Asia magazine, his secretary told me he had been unavoidably detained. I was incensed but soon discovered that Dixit had a legitimate excuse. He had indeed been detained -- by the police, so I went to a downtown police station.

About 20 of Nepal's top journalists had been arrested for holding a nonviolent rally to protest the arrest of other journalists earlier that day. This is akin to having Katie Couric, Tom Brokaw and Seymour Hersh all detained in the same police courtyard.

Reese Erlich is a freelance foreign correspondent who recently returned from Nepal.

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