By- Suvechha Adhikari
History repeats itself. The families of the disappeared have come to the streets once again demanding the publication of whereabouts of their loved ones, in a state of desperation and exhaustion.
Running from barracks, police posts to Human Right organizations, now these families are back on streets to pressurize the government to address their grievances.
“It’s been 4 years since we have frequently asked the government to provide us the whereabouts of our family members. But there is no response from their side. How long are we going to live in such a state of desperation,” says Shanta Bhandari, one of the founder of Association of families of people disappeared by the State and also the mother of Bipin Bhandari, who is disappeared since June 16, 2002.
I vividly recall the conversation I had with her and other family members of the disappeared whom I met during research in Nepal on issue concerning enforced disappearances.
Wives whose husbands have disappeared, fathers who are still in the process of locating their sons and siblings who are desperately waiting for their brothers to come home. The wait goes on, the hope lives on as the memories of their loved ones haunt them and the vengeance grows tougher towards the faceless phantom that authored these disappearances.
The state and the security forces have been time and again criticized for arbitrarily arresting people and disappearing them since the conflict started. Various Human Right organizations claimed that the cases of disappearances increased, considerably following the declaration of a state of emergency and deployment of the Royal Nepal Army in November 2001.
Amidst intense criticism from national and international community and pressure from families and relatives of the disappeared, there hasn’t been any considerable change in the behavior of state and security forces.
The demand to internationalize the issue, which has remained as a backburner, has been nothing but a debacle. Errors emanating from the state’s side surfaced out as they have always been reticent tackling the problems of disappearances with utter scrutiny and have constantly denied the claims of disappearances. Even the committee formed by the government to investigate the cases of disappearances, under the Home Ministry in August 2004 chaired by Joint Secretary Narayan Gopal Malego didn’t show any tangible results.
The commission was only provided answers to only a few cases of the disappeared and gave false hopes to the family members of others.
The primary demand of families of the disappeared has remained unchanged: “publicizing the whereabouts of their loved ones”. The anxiety and despair, authored by the diseased politics ransacking the lives of many more has made them ignorant about the fate of their loved ones, which indeed is their prime concern. However, their disrupted lives due to the disappearance of their loved ones cannot go unnoticed. The economic vulnerability and psychological consequences due to the disappearance cannot be neglected.
Most of the people disappeared being men, mostly the sole bread earner of the family; their disappearances have lead into material deprivation of the family. And most, the vulnerable here are children of these disappeared members. The lives of these little ones who barely know about the nascent, democracy devouring lives and property around them has been wrecked so much so that they are on the verge of dropping out from their schools.
The fear and insecurity of life, and sudden changes in their social and economic situation has also produced psychological effects on these families.
The social and economic marginalization of these families, their pain and suffering, the disintegration of fabric of their society and undermining of their relations between individuals in the community is not a matter that can be easily sidelined.
Unlike other conflict victims, they are debarred from both social and material assistance from the State. The State has explicitly recognized the Maoist victims as the victims of conflict and has introduced a compensation scheme. However, the loss the families of the disappeared have to undergo is unaccounted.
Though it is a duty of the State to produce itself as impartial machinery while assisting the victims of internal conflict, it has failed to do so when it came to families of the disappeared.
On the other hand, the international community, the donors and International Human Right organizations have only been effective in terms of pressurizing the government to bring about a halt in the phenomenon of disappearances that has become rampant, as the political instability has hiked up. They have acknowledged the problems explicitly, however no material and social assistance has been brought to the families considering them as the secondary victims.
It seems that this community hasn’t felt any obligation towards these families unlike other conflict victims. For them, the plight and infringement of the families of the disappeared happened to be the secondary issues.
Even the national/local Human Right organizations have failed to respond to the needs and plight of these families of the disappeared.
Few organizations, which are working on the issue of disappearances, have constrained their activities to providing assistance in locating the disappeared person and free legal service.
Though locating the loved ones and provision of legal support is inevitably the family’s primary need, these families are in need of material resources and profound social assistance than just the assurance and hope of return of person from these organizations.
As the country continues to toddle with its relevant “war for peace” policy, a sudden halt in cases of disappearance is not only difficult, but also sort of virtual. And it is amounted to the unwillingness and the lack of accountability of authorities that are supposed to look after the issues of disappearances and after effects.
It is acknowledged that even for national and local human right organization providing social and material assistance for the families of the disappeared, it is a massive task as the political antagonism has become hard to bridge the facet of the country. And also, there is need of immense human and material resources.
(Ms. Adhikari is a Masters level student of Gender and Development Studies at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand. This article is based on her research on families of enforced disappeared in Nepal between July-October, last year. Please send your comments to [email protected] or [email protected])
(Editor’s Note: Nepalis, wherever they live, as well as friends of Nepal around the globe are requested to contribute their views/opinions/recollections etc. on issues concerning present day Nepal to the Guest Column of Nepalnews. Length of the article should not be more than 1,000 words and may be edited for the purpose of clarity and space. Relevant photos as well as photo of the author may also be sent along with the article. Please send your write-ups to [email protected])
Four more bodies of the passengers who had been missing since an ill-fated bus plunged into Trishuli River five days ago, were recovered on Saturday.
A bus belonging to Tilanga Transport with registration number NA 2 KHA 7678 fell 250 meters from the road at Jyamireghat when it collided with a taxi coming from opposite direction on 7th March.
According to police, the body of a five-year old girl, Deep Shikha Giri of Jhapa has been recovered.
The police could not identify the bodies of one child and two men. The death toll of the Jyamireghat bus accident has now reached 10.
The state of more than 48 other passengers remains unknown.
The rescue operation was affected on Saturday due to the rainfall since Friday.
Part of ill-fated bus surfaced in the water after continuous efforts to pull the bus out of water.
The pro-Maoist trade union All Nepal Trade Union Federation (ANTUF) has called off its two day strike of factories, hotel and transportation.
A statement issued by the ANTUF said it has called off the strike scheduled from Sunday and Monday responding to requests from various political parties, civil society, industrialists and businessmen.
Leaders of seven opposition political parties have said that the seven-party alliance and the Maoists were holding talks with a view to evolve a single view regarding the procedure of going for an election to a constituent assembly and further strengthening the 12-point pact.
Speaking at an interaction in the capital on Saturday, central committee member of the CPN-UML, Shankar Pokharel, outlined the need of finding consensus between the parties and the Maoists regarding the procedure of the constituent assembly, according to reports.
The alliance and the Maoists have differences of opinions about the ways of holding the assembly polls.
Content of the talks would not be made public unless they were agreed upon between the two sides, Pokharel said, adding that the peaceful joint movement of the agitating parties would not succeed unless the Maoists suspended violence like blockade and general strikes.
Central working committee member of the Nepali Congress (NC) Dr Shekhar Koirala said, “We are holding serious talks with the Maoists to further strengthen the understanding and get it fully implemented.”
He also informed that the talks are underway to remove confusions that emerged since the signing of the understanding.
The seven opposition political parties and Maoists signed a 12- point understanding in November last year to find the peaceful outlet of the Maoist insurgency and to bring Maoists into mainstream of politics.
Speaking at the same programme, NC (Democratic) leader Dip Kumar Upadhyaya urged the King to heed on the flexibility shown by the Maoists to find a solution to the political crisis.
Vice chairman of People’s Front Nepal Lilamani Pokharel said that the violent activities of Maoists should not affect the alliance’s planned agitation beginning from April 8.
He also pointed out the need of upgrading the 12-point understanding between the political parties and Maoists and hoped that the talks would bring positive results.
Joint general secretary of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Rana) Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan, however, stressed the need for evolving a common political roadmap between the King, parties and the Maoists to find an amicable solution to the crisis.
The authorities have accused that Maoists are continuing their atrocities despite their commitment to respect human rights and civil rights of people, in the 12-point pact with the seven political parties.
Maoists shot dead Bed Bahadur Lama, a resident of Dhalkebar of Dhanusa district on Saturday.
A press statement issued by the Ministry of Defense said Maoists shot dead Shankar Mallaha, a resident of Rupaulia bazaar of Nawalparasi district on Thursday.
Peon of Bheri Zonal Transportation office Shankar Thapa was injured when Maoists detonated a bomb at the office premises, the statement adds.
The MoD statement further said two Maoists were killed and five other injured when a bomb carried by them went off in Khairani area of Rolpa district on 7th March.
Maoists abducted Dhundi Raj Rana, ward chairman of Tulsipur municipality ward number three of Dang district on 9th March. Likewise the Maoists abducted 15 students from Shree Satya Secondary School of Pandusen village development committee of Bajura district. Maoists also abducted Birjit Rokaya and Ram Bahadur Khadka from Juguda VDC of the same district, the statement adds.
A benevolent fund entitled “Nepali Expatriate Benevolent Fund-Qatar” was formally established in Qatar to assist Nepalese in distress in Qatar.
A press statement issued by the Nepali Expatriate Benevolent Fund-Qatar said the fund was established in a joint effort between the Royal Nepalese Embassy and the Nepalese community in Qatar.
“The fund aims to help Nepalese in distress in Qatar and provide assistance like lodging, food, air tickets, court fees and others,” the statement adds.
The Board also appealed to all individuals/organizations (nationals as well as foreigners), interested in and associated with humanitarian cause, to contribute liberally to the fund.
“The contribution can be directly deposited to the account of Royal Nepalese Embassy Benevolent Fund, account number 215-258320-1-10-0 held with Doha Bank, C Ring Road Branch,” the statement adds.
Qatar is one of the most popular destinations for Nepali foreign job seekers.
Ending months-long bullish trend, the index of Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) declined by 1.71 points over the week due to the weak performance of commercial bank and development bank groups.
The Nepse index at the country’s sole secondary market started at 339.58 points on Sunday and went down to 337.87 points on the last day of trading under a regular lot.
The leading sector including commercial banks and development banks showed a decline in their index, whereas manufacturing group, other group, insurance group and finance group showed increment in their respective indices. The index of hotel group remained unchanged.
A total of 292,274 units of shares worth Rs 101,112,058 were traded through 4,045 transactions over the week against a total of 168,614 units of shares worth Rs 94,962,588 from 1,157 transactions of the previous week.
The index of commercial bank group that opened at 376.82 points on Sunday went down to 373.64 points on the closing day. Likewise, the index of development bank group moved down by 9.35 points, dropping to 279.15 points.
The index of manufacturing group moved up from 286.43 points to 289.73 points, insurance group reached 344.93 points from 344.14 points, whereas the trading group moved down to 141.72 points from 148.07 points. The indices of finance group and other group showed increment of 0.31 points and 6.0 points, reaching their indices to 351.39 and 250.66 points respectively.
The index of hotel group remained constant at 183.55 points.
Like the previous weeks, the commercial banks group continued to dominate the floor of stock exchange capturing 84.57 percent of the total transaction. The share of finance group consisted of 11.61 percent with manufacturing group following it at 1.58 percent. The development bank transactions made up 0.16 percent while the trading group and insurance group captured 0.59 and 1.49 percent, respectively.
Eighteen more bodies of commuters who drowned when a passenger bus plunged into the Trishuli River along Prithivi Highway last Tuesday were recovered on Sunday.
The bodies were recovered after the bus was pulled out of the river.
However, only fourteen bodies have been identified so far.
They have been identified as Laxmi Giri of Fuldibari area of Jhapa district, Dinesh Shrestha of Amlekhgunj, Jevan Pal of Silgudi, Mukesh Agrawal of Calcutta-India, Kalpana Chettri of Jalpaigudi-India, Hari Priya Thapa of Jhapa Damak, Ratan Agrawal of Jhapa, Dorje Lama of Gorkha, Manoranjan Pal of Darjeeling, Ekdev Bhandari of Taplejung, Anil Thapa Of Jhapa, Usha Agrawal of Calcutta, Kunti Basyent of Gorkarna and Birendra Kumar Manadal of Dhanusha.
Ten bodies had been recovered earlier. With this the total death toll in the accident has reached 28.
The ill-fated bus belonging to Tilanga Transport with registration number NA 2 KHA 7678, heading from Kakarvita to Kathmandu, fell 250 meters from the road at Jyamireghat when it collided with a taxi coming from opposite direction on 7th March.
Home Minister Kamal Thapa has said the government has made strong and adequate security provisions to thwart programs such as blockades and strikes.
Speaking at a program in the western town of Bhairahawa Sunday, the Home Minister called upon transport entrepreneurs and businessmen to help foil such blockades and strikes imposed upon the people.
At the same time, he also warned of strong action those defying the appeal.
He also informed that mechanism was already in place to ensure smooth and uninterrupted supply of commodities, according to reports.
The Home Ministers’ comment came ahead of the rumours of indefinite blockade called by the Maoists starting from Tuesday.
Speaking at the same programme, entrepreneurs also urged all concerned parties not to organise such programmes saying it will have serious adverse impact in the national economy.
Officials at the state-owned Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) have said the on-going load shedding will continue in the days ahead despite some rainfall in the capital and other parts of the country over the last two days.
Talking to Nepalnews on Sunday, managing director of the NEA Harischandra Shah said rain over the last two days was too little to make any impact in terms of power generation. “The level of water at Kulekhani reservoir went up by 7 cm.only (due to the rain). So, there is no other option than to prolong the load-shedding,” he added.
Shah further said that the NEA may be compelled to extend the duration of load-shedding at present (35 hours a week) if the dry spell continued.
Meanwhile, officials at the Meteorological Forecasting Division (MFD) have said the recent rainfall in the country was due to the western wind and not the initiation of the monsoon.
Meteorologist at the MFD, Shiva Prasad Nepal, said the latest rain was due to the western wind.
He further said the wind that was flowing from western parts of India and Nepal has already crossed the eastern region so there would be no more rain in the country.
The Department has said there will be improvement in the weather from Sunday.
According to DOHM, the mid-western district of Surkhet had the heaviest rainfall on Saturday receiving 53.2 mm of rain, while the eastern town of Simara had the least rainfall recording 1.7 mm rainfall.
Mr. Nepal of the MFD said rainfall during the monsoon will depend mainly on the pre-monsoon activities. Months of March and April are considered as pre monsoon period.
“The situation of thermal convection and thunder shocks will decide the situation of rainfall in the monsoon period,” he added.
The monsoon generally enters Nepal within June 10 every year .
There had been no rain in the country throughout this winter (November-February).