The alliance of seven agitating political parties have announced fresh protest programmes, including Nepal Bandh (general strike) on January 26, protesting the government’s use of force in their peaceful protests.

A meeting of the Joint Mass Movement Coordination Committee of the alliance on Saturday evening decided to call for Nepal bandh on Jan 26 and announce more protest programs to disturb the municipal poll slated for February 8.

The opposition parties have claimed that police have taken into custody hundreds of their party leaders and workers in Saturday’s peaceful demonstrations. They have alleged the government of using excessive force to thwart their peaceful mass meeting and rally.

The alliance would stage rallies and mass gatherings against the election in all the municipalities across the nation.

The seven party alliance that are boycotting the municipal polls actively has announced Nepal Bandh on the day of filing candidature for the municipal poll.

The government announced day long curfew in the capital on Friday to thwart the mass meeting of the seven opposition alliance.

Top leaders of seven opposition alliance have been kept under house arrest and hundreds of leaders and cadres of political parties were arrested from peaceful demonstrations of the capital on Friday and Saturday.

Maoists have also warned to disrupt the municipal polls.

Armed Police Force (APF) played to a goalless draw against Manang Marshyangdi Club (MMC), Rani Pokhari Corner Team (RCT) outclassed Boys Union Club (BUC) 3-1 while New Road Team (NRT) thrashed tail enders Boudha FC (BFC) 4-1 in the ANFA Martyrs’ Memorial “A” Division League Football Tournament matches played today.

In the APF versus MMC match played at Dashrath Stadium, the first half was listless with no worthwhile attempts from both sides.

After the re-start, APF squandered many goal scoring chances which could have helped them break into the top four. “It was brilliant game today from our side and I am happy with my boys,” APF coach Noble Rana told reporters. MMC coach Chhering Lopsang was distressed with the results. “I am quite frustrated with the aftermath. I don’t know what is happening,” he questioned himself.

In the other match played at the stadium, RCT outclassed Boys Union Club 3-1 to anchor its position in mid-table of the league standings. The win saw RCT at eight position with 27 points. Rajan Gauchan struck twice in the 11th and 55th minute while Ajit Thapa ensured the victory scoring the team’s third goal in the 58th minute. Nigerian recruit Obiodum scored a face saving goal for BUC.

Elsewhere at Halchowk Stadium, NRT blanked out tail ender Boudha FC 4-1 riding the crest of Sunil Subedi, Jeevan Sinkeman and Yougal Kishor Rai. Subedi struck twice in the 11th and 88th minute while Yougak Kishor Rai scored in the 77th and Jeevan got one in the 81st minute.

Neither was curfew imposed nor was a strike called, but for shopkeepers in New Road, Basantapur and their adjoining area, it was an off-business day.

Policemen arresting a pro-democracy activist at Basantapur in Kathmandu on Saturday, Jan. 21 06. nepalnews.com/rh

Policemen arresting a pro-democracy activist at Basantapur in Kathmandu on Saturday, Jan. 21 06. nepalnews.com/rh
Shopkeepers began to pull their shutters down at about 1 p. m. and by the next half-an-hour, the otherwise busy market was totally deserted. Security forces were kept on alert and standby along New Road and Basantapur area. Smaller groups of people could be seen along by-passes discussing ways to come out in the main streets. In fact, both the opposition activists and security personnel were prepared for a showdown at Basantapur.

The seven party opposition alliance had called for its show of strength on Friday in Kathmandu, which could not be take place due to the imposition of day-long curfew within Ring Road.

The parties then postponed their programme a day later. Some senior political activists started chanting pro-democracy slogans on Saturday, some half an hour earlier than the schedule. However, the big band of police easily snatched them away. The crowds began to enlarge and by 2 p.m. and there were over ten thousand agitators chanting anti-king and pro-democracy slogans in various corners of Basantapur, New Road, Dharmapath, Indra Chowk and Bhotahity.

RNA personnel were cautiously guarding the Hanuman Dhoka Durbar Square area while police seemed in haste and nasty so as to scare the peaceful agitators. The growing crowd became unmanageable for them and police called for reinforcements.

The Police Inspector who was given the charge of controlling agitators in Basantapur area also tried to scare the media personnel and human rights observers. A journalist Diwakar Panta was threatened and beaten by the police while a security personnel was badly injured by agitators.

The teargas made the policemen suffer more than protesting groups. Police constables were hesitating to run to charge the enraged mobs but their team leaders were forcing them to move ahead amid rains of stones. They were more concerned to search for water to wash their eyes rather than to run and get hold of the protestors.

Ghanashyam Poudel, a leader of pro-left Jana Morcha Nepal, emerged out of nowhere and started making fiery speech for about a minute. He was instantly taken to District Police station, Hanuman Dhoka. Leaders like Ram Sharan Mahat, Yubaraj Gyawali, Guru Raj Ghimire, Mahanta Thakur, Shashi Shrestha, among others, were arrested. TU professors and academicians also courted arrests.

The struggle between the agitators and police continued for more than four hours.

The agitators said they would continue their protests until democracy was restored in the country. For the businessmen at New Road, the immediate concern was restoration of peace and some sort of dialogue between the major political forces in the country.

By Shyamal Krishna Shrestha

Nepal is marching precariously on the road to perdition. Prolonged turmoil looms large in the Himalayan kingdom, already confronting a decade-old armed conflict wherein a brutal ‘‘people’s war’’ and an inhumane counter-insurgency operation is undermining personal liberty and human security. Further conflict would exacerbate impoverishment of the economy while putting the country’s population to greater vulnerability.

Nepal now ranks close to a ‘failed state’, along with Sub-Saharan countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and Zimbabwe, all characterized by destabilization, armed conflict, social instability and humanitarian disaster. Some nation states, especially in Africa and Asia, have been identified as ‘failed states’ in the post-Cold War era due to continued instability, which have acted as a brake on further growth and development. On what basis are states classified as ‘failed’? It is argued that a dysfunctional state, where multiple competing political factions engage in conflict within its borders, is automatically a ‘failed state’.. However, if essential functions of government continue in areas controlled by the central authority, the state has not ‘failed’. In Nepal’s case, although the state’s writ does not run in certain parts of the rural hinterland, Maoist insurgents have been unable to exercise suzerainty. Hence, it would be premature to term Nepal as a ‘failed state’.

In the view of American scholar Robert Rothberg (2003), Nepal is already a ‘failed state’ Various indicators imply that the state has ‘failed’: the state provides only limited economic and political goods; its institutions are flawed; the state’s apparatus helps in oppression of citizens; Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita declines; the poor become more impoverished and inequality worsens; infrastructure deteriorates or is destroyed in the course of conflict; livelihoods are uprooted, leading to human displacement; the rule of law is significantly weakened; government is characterized by rampant greed and corruption; and there is unparalleled economic opportunities for a privileged few and none for others. Widespread terror and violent reprisals undermine universal principles of ‘freedom from fear’ and ‘freedom from want’ in ‘failed states’ experiencing high level of violence. ‘Failed states’ are also devoid of visionary leadership, leading undesired foreign elements to ‘fish in troubled waters’.

It requires no elaboration that an impoverished economy cannot sustain a civil war too; and is a recipe for imminent economic destitution
The metamorphosis that Nepal, once considered Shangri-la, has undergone could be hardly paradoxical. It is pertinent to recall that, in 1975, late King Birendra articulated his ‘Zone of Peace’ proposal to institutionalize peace within the country and also prevent Nepal to be used as a pawn in geo-political rivalries in the Cold War era. In reality, the country used its geo-strategic location to extract concessions from its neighbours while state persecution was widespread in the domestic sphere. Behind the embellishment of a ‘developmental state’ lay structural weaknesses that remain addressed even to this day. Unaccountability and kleptocracy further weakened the economy. As the Panchayat system outlived its purpose, the historic Jan Andolan was able to succeed.

The political changes of 1990 were a milestone as far as regaining lost political freedoms were concerned. The real challenge lied in breaking away from a feudal past and ushering socio-economic justice by implementing ‘social contracts’, which refers to the economic and political goods — equal economic opportunities to all citizens, basic freedoms, distributive justice and entitlements — that a state has to provide not only to institutionalise its legitimacy but also as a check against ‘grievance’ among peoples and regions. A cohesive and unifying ‘social contract’ is the sustained poverty alleviation plan to address horizontal inequality and uplift the downtrodden. For a country with multiple ethnic groups, strong social contracts also checks centrifugal forces and strengthens nationalism. When these were largely ignored during Nepal’s multiparty democratic experience by a divisive leadership, they became the prime economic driver fuelling conflict. Addressing class, ethnicity, gender and production relations are a sine qua non, without which newly emerging democracies (making the transition from colonial rule or authoritarianism to democracy) can easily fall prey to conflict. Instead, neo-liberal economic policies vis-à-vis ‘Washington Consensus’ dominated the economic agenda while reforms to address genuine constraints on sustainable growth were left to the mercy of the market.

With a low growth rate averaging 4 percent during 1975 to 2003, Nepal has been unable to sustain economic growth to meet development challenges. Its per capita GDP is now only above the twelve poorest economies of the world. When five decades of bikas come to naught, the outcome can only be dependency, poverty, inequality and widening income gaps between the rich and the poor; all factors leading to grievance expressed through political radicalism.

As the country again finds itself under the renewed siege of authoritarianism, unrepresentative form of government is leading to political underdevelopment; a process that deepens the chasm between the actual needs of citizens and the desires of those wielding power. It requires no elaboration that an impoverished economy cannot sustain a civil war too; and is a recipe for imminent economic destitution. The emergence of ‘party-less institutions in the multiparty polity’ makes a travesty of the rule of law.

It must be admitted that Nepal’s current ideological crisis is also a corollary of the state’s continued apathy towards the silent majority (the ruled) compared with apotheoses of a few (the rulers). However, the need of the hour is reconciliation among political actors in favour of freedom, prosperity and peace in a state, which is on the road to perdition, to avert further brinkmanship and catastrophe.

(Shrestha is a Kathmandu-based economist. Please send your comments to [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] and your comments/suggestions to [email protected])

Security personnel on alert at Durbarmarg, Kathmandu, during the day-long curfew, Friday morning, Jan 20 06. nepalnews.com/ks

As the day-long curfew was to kick off at 8:00 a.m. Friday, people could be seen rushing to their work places this morning. Dozens of people were reviewing the day’s newspaper at the busy Baneswore chowk as security personnel were taking their positions. Some drivers in hurry were seen jumping the red traffic light though there were no reports of traffic-related accidents so far.

Dozens of vehicles were seen queuing in front of the Kathmandu Valley Traffic Police office at Ram Shah Path to apply for the curfew pass for their vehicles. An official at the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) told Nepalnews over phone that they were about to leave to monitor the curfew shortly.

A few activists affiliated to Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Anandi Devi) staged a demonstration at Sundhara minutes before the curfew was to come into force. It could not be known whether the activists were arrested.

Landline telephones are still working whereas UTL and mobile phone services remain down since early Thursday.

The authorities said the day-long curfew had to be imposed to maintain law and order in the capital in view of possible violence in the wake of mass meetings and protest rally planned by the seven party opposition alliance.

The opposition leaders, however, said their protests would be peaceful.

Police arrested over one hundred opposition leaders and rights activists on Thursday so as to foil the opposition protests scheduled on Friday.

The United States has condemned what it called “the decision by the King of Nepal” to detain political party leaders and civil society activists in advance of political demonstrations scheduled for Friday (January 20).

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack (Photo source : newsfromrussia.com)

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack (Photo source : newsfromrussia.com)
A statement issued by Sean McCormack, spokesman of the US Department of State in Washington D.C. on Thursday said these arrests and harassment of peaceful democratic forces was a violation of their civil and political rights.

“The United States calls on the King to release these activists. Dialogue between the King and the parties and a return to democracy are the only effective ways to address the Maoist insurgency in Nepal,” the statement said.

India, Japan and European Union have also expressed their “serious concerns” over arrests of over 100 political leaders and opposition activists in Nepal and have called upon the royal government to reach out to the political parties to find a solution to the decade-old armed conflict.

British Foreign Office Minister, Dr Kim Howells (Photo source : gnn.gov.uk)

British Foreign Office Minister, Dr Kim Howells (Photo source : gnn.gov.uk)
Meanwhile, responding to the arrest of political leaders and activists in Nepal on Thursday in advance of their planned demonstrations on 20 January, British Foreign Office Minister, Dr Kim Howells, said, ‘The UK is extremely concerned by the King’s actions, and we can see no grounds for these anti-democratic measures.’

The British government has also called on King Gyanendra to urgently release those arrested, and to find ways to resume dialogue with the political parties. Only by reaching out to the political parties to develop a common agenda will there be any prospect of a meaningful exercise in democracy,” the minister said.

”We will be making our profound concerns known to the Government of Nepal at the highest level,” he added.

Responding to the Government of Nepal’s arrest of more than one hundred politicians and other critics, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on all sides in the strife-torn Himalayan kingdom to return to the negotiating table and halt the violence.

In a statement issued in New York on Thursday, a spokesman to the UN Secretary General said Mr. Annan was dismayed at the arrests made ahead of a demonstration planned for the capital, and that the Representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal, Ian Martin, had raised the matter with the Nepal government. UN human rights officers had also visited 97 of more than 120 persons detained on Thursday.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (Photo source : fn.no)

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (Photo source : fn.no)
“The Secretary-General once again appeals to all sides for calm, the suspension of fighting and the urgent initiation of an inclusive national dialogue,” the statement said, noting that Annan’s repeated calls for dialogue between the Government and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) had been rejected.

Last month, the Secretary-General urged a truce between the royal government and the Maoists days before a ceasefire declared by the Maoist rebels in September expired on 2 January. In a statement released by his spokesman on 30 December, the Secretary-General voiced deep regret that no progress appeared to have been made towards a mutually agreed truce between the parties.

Shortly after the four-month unilateral ceasefire expired, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour urged all sides to avoid a renewal of the gross abuses that have characterized a conflict that started in 1996.

Such abuses include extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances and abductions, attacks on public transport buses, indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, widespread torture and other crimes. Children have been killed and injured, forcibly recruited, used as informers, and arbitrarily detained and beaten, the High Commissioner’s office said.

The US, UK, European Union, India and Japan have also expressed “serious concerns” at Thursday’s arrests and have renewed their call upon King Gyanendra—who is currently touring eastern districts of the country—to reach out to the political parties.

Thousands of passengers on their way to the capital, Kathmandu, from around the country remain stranded at Kalanki Chowk and various places on the Prithvi Highway due to the day-long curfew on Friday.

File photo of traffic jam at the Kalanki section of the road that links Kathmandu to the highway outside the city last year. (Photo courtesy : Gopal Chitrakar, Frontlineonnet.com)

File photo of traffic jam at the Kalanki section of the road that links Kathmandu to the highway outside the city last year. (Photo courtesy : Gopal Chitrakar, Frontlineonnet.com)
Huge crowd of passengers could be seen at Kalanki, across the Ring Road, as heavily-armed security men patrolled the deserted streets. Unaware of the curfew orders during their night journey, many of the passengers said the government authorities did not properly inform the people about the curfew orders.

“We didn’t know about the curfew. We thought the curfew was effective at night only. Hundreds of passengers like us have been stranded for hours,” Ganesh Karki of Baglung who was waiting, at Kalanki, for the curfew to end, told Nepalnews Friday afternoon.

He said hundreds of passenger buses have been stuck at Nagdhunga and many other places along the Prithvi Highway since last night. “I came across a group of youths who were fearing that they may miss their flight abroad this evening,” he added.

“We have not got anything to eat as we had to stay inside the bus throughout last night and this morning,” a weary-looking woman said.

However, no arrangements were made from the authorities to help the stranded passengers reach their destinations.

Meanwhile, in areas where the curfew has been clamped, crowds could be seen at retail shops and vegetable markets in the morning with local residents hurrying to store necessary goods but streets looked completely deserted by the time the curfew orders came into effect at 8 a.m.

Government employees were seen rushing to their offices as the Home Ministry issued circulars asking concerned authorities to ensure that the employees reach their offices before the curfew hours.

In the meantime, many SLC up-sent examinees who were caught unaware about their exams being cancelled due to the curfew, made beelines in front of the Valley Traffic Police Office in Kathmandu, District Police office in Lalitpur and District Administration Office in Bhaktapur for passes. Today’s sent-up exam was cancelled in Kavre district also.

Despite sporadic protests and arrests of dozens of opposition political leaders and cadres in the morning, there were no reports of violence.

Indian police have taken into custody dozens of demonstrators including students, human rights activists and journalists on Friday while they were protesting against fresh crackdown in Nepal, reports said.

Demonstrators trying to fix a banner in front of Royal Nepalese embassy in New Delhi on Friday (Photo courtesy : Arun Deo Joshi)

Demonstrators trying to fix a banner in front of Royal Nepalese embassy in New Delhi on Friday (Photo courtesy : Arun Deo Joshi)
A statement issued by Nepali Youth Initiative for Peace and Democracy on Friday said the demonstration was organised to protest against fresh ban on peaceful assembly, mass meetings and arrest of over a hundred political and right activists in the Himalayan kingdom.

A numbers of Nepali migrant organisations including Pravasi Nepali Sangh Bharat, Nepali Jan Sampark Samiti, Bharat, Migrant Nepalese Watchmen Labour Committee and Indian organisations including Socialist Front India participated in the demonstration organised by the NYIPAD in front of the Royal Nepalese embassy in Delhi.

Hundreds of demonstrators walked towards the embassy Gate from Mandi House and staged sit- in protest there. Banners were pasted at the gate and walls of the Nepalese embassy and slogans against what they called autocratic regime in Nepal and in support of on-going pro-democracy movement in Nepal for more than an hour, the statement said.

The demonstrators were in custody till this evening, the organisers said.

The government said police have taken into custody 214 people for defying the curfew orders imposed in the capital, Kathmandu, on Friday.

The Home Ministry said those arrested will be released after investigation. It did not provide details.

As the ten-hour long curfew was lifted at 6:00 p. m. on Friday, people were seen rushing to their houses from offices and flocking to nearby grocery shops to buy essential household goods. Crowds had also gathered at major thoroughfares of the capital after the curfew was relaxed for three hours.

Overnight curfew will again be imposed from 9:00 p. m. until 4:00 a. m. on Saturday.

There was heavy security around the capital Friday as Royal Nepalese Army personnel and personnel from Nepal Police and Armed Police Force guarded the Kathmandu streets.

Vehicles belonging to security agencies, media and human rights groups and those that had already obtained curfew passes could be seen plying on the roads.

While most of the shops remained closed even after the lifting of the curfew this evening, two wheelers and four wheelers could be seen speeding off on the streets.

Meanwhile, preliminary reports say hundreds of opposition activists carried out protests including torch-lit rallies in various parts of the capital as soon as the day-long curfew was lifted. There were reports of clashes between security forces and opposition activists at Gongabu and other parts of the valley this evening.

Opposition activists took out a torch-lit rally from Maitidevi to Dilli Bazar this evening. At least two opposition activists were arrested while taking part in a separate torch lit rally at Chabahil, reports said.

Details are being awaited.

Meanwhile, the seven party opposition alliance has said it will continue to defy prohibitory orders. The alliance said it will organize a mass meeting at Basantapur of Kathmandu at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. “The government’s repressive moves will not deter our mass movement,” said a statement issued by the CPN (UML) on Friday.