Indefinite Bandh Day 5

My latest round-up of articles about the bandh in Nepal; see below for my own pictures of the day.

Maoist General Strike Enters Day 5; Normal Life Badly Hit; Clashes in Birgunj
“Marketplaces, educational institutions and industries have also remained closed for almost a week now. Daily wage workers are badly hit due to the strike as they have not been able to work for many days.”

Capital Tense as Maoists, Locals Clash in Several Places
“Tension escalated in several places of the capital after the local youth leaders of the ruling parties took to demonstrations against the Maoists on Thursday”

DISTRICT ROUND-UP: Clashes in Several Places; Curfew in Humla, Birgunj, Dhankuta

“As the general strike called by the UCPN (Maoists) continues to cripple the normal life across the nation, voices against the banda seems to have gone louder with the increasing reports of confrontations between the locals and the Maoists…”

Clashes in Nepal as Frustration Grows at Shutdown
“Two doctors are working 24 hours and a few nurses are working double shifts,” Philip Shyam Ranjit, a doctor at B&B Hospital’s emergency department, told AFP. “A lot of people have no access to medical attention.”

Waiting at the Top of the World
“Tempers are flaring. It would not take much for people’s discontent with the strike to tip into civil unrest.  Even before the strike, the country had entered an advanced state of entropy…”

Maoists Officially Decide to Fight Back Retaliation
“The UCPN (Maoist) on Thursday decided to retaliate against those who attempt to assault its cadres, concluding that premeditated attacks are being launched with the government backing against the Maoist during the course of banda.”

YCL Claims ‘Vigilante’ Groups Instigating Clashes During Maoist Protests
“YCL [Young Communist League] Nepal will counter any move by vigilantes to defy the peaceful demonstration by the protestors,” the statement said.

Time is Running Out for Attempts to Settle the Country’s Confrontation
“NEPAL’S Maoists can put on an impressive display. For the past week they have endured torrential rain and outbreaks of diarrhoea to bring the capital, Kathmandu, and the rest of the country, to a halt…”

Maoists Returning Homes on Daily Basis
“Those men and women on the way back said they decided to return home as they faced food and shelter problems in the capital and they started suffering from different diseases. ”

Vacate Schools, Colleges: Student Unions
“The examinations of twelfth grade have been disrupted due to the general strike. Schools and colleges have been converted into Maoist camps. This has violated students´ right to education. We condemn such acts,” said a joint statement issued by the student unions.

Kalimati Veg Market Runs Out of Stock
“He admitted that consumers are paying exorbitant prices for even decaying vegetables due to the absence of proper mechanism to regulate market during strikes.”

Markets to Open from 6-10 pm
“Maoists on Thursday decided not to disrupt vehicles carrying vegetables. The party also decided to let the markets open from 6 pm to 10 pm. ”

Tourists Caught up in Nepal Maoist Strike
“Hotel and restaurant owners say that Maoist supporters have threatened them, telling them to remain shut.”

Maoists Thrash 4 Journalists in Nepal
“Nepal’s Maoists have thrashed and beaten up four journalists while enforcing their strike in the national capital despite their commitment to respect press freedom.”

Trouble in Paradise

It’s a beautiful day.  Not too hot, not too cold… pleasant breeze.

This morning

Who wouldn’t want to enjoy it, maybe go outside, get some work done?

The morning's normal rural-urban life in Kathmandu

Well, these people, I suppose:

Part of a wave of Maoists that started heading up the street mid-morning

Many of the Maoists carried sharpened sticks

There were a lot of them

For us, the bandh has been very quiet.  We’ve stayed at home, reading the news or watching the television, doing housework.  But this morning we kept looking out windows to find the source of the shouting, then dashing up to the roof to take pictures of the people marching down the street.  Several hundred must have passed, in at least three different waves.  They disappeared to the north, toward Budhanilkantha.

A section of one of the crowds

Soon after, the media outlets lit up with the news from Budhanilkantha, with video on the TV and articles online.

Capital Tense as Maoists, Locals Clash in Several Places
“Tension escalated in several places of the capital after the local youth leaders of the ruling parties took to demonstrations against the Maoists on Thursday”

General Strike Turns Violent; Clashes in Various Places
“Situation is tense in Budhanilkantha, too. There were clashes between locals and Maoist cadres this morning. At least three persons including a minor were injured in the incident. Police fired six rounds of tear gas shells to take the situation in control. ”

Meanwhile I was watching the sky.  The breeze had kicked up; it whipped my clothes around me and made it harder to hold the camera.  I watched the lowering clouds descending from the barrier of hills at the edge of Shivapuri National Park.  They rolled over Budhanilkantha first.

It started to get darker

Clouds engulfed the hills just north of Budhanilkantha, then rolled south

I think the gods are crying

Nepali of the Day:

baadal lagyo:  it’s cloudy

paani paryo:  it’s raining

malaii dukha lagyo:  I’m sad

Nepali Politics 104

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Pokhara travelogue for breaking news.

For several months after we arrived, the political situation settled down.  The Maoist insurgency that had rocked Nepal in a multi-year civil war ended two years before we arrived; free and fair elections were held in April, and the Maoist party received the highest percentage of the vote.  In the elections, Nepalis chose 601 people of Nepal to write a new constitution for the country, and one of the first things the Constituent Assembly did was to declare Nepal a republic and demand the king step down from power.  Then an interim President was announced, followed by an interim Prime Minister, and then there was the selection of a cabinet, and now, seven months after the election, the Constituent Assembly (CA) has settled down to choosing committees to finally write the new Constitution they swear will be ready within two years.

All this duly unfolded, very slowly, amidst much bickering between the multiple parties that compose the Nepali government.  But, aside from a few bandhs when we first arrived in June, we really haven’t seen much political disturbance.

Unfortunately, there’s some now.

Honestly, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m still trying to sort out the political situation here.  It’s very complicated, and unlike the great interest from Nepalis in American politics, most Americans don’t exactly follow Nepali politics from an early age.

So some of this you must merely accept as fact.  Worry about the details behind the facts on another day–we’re only on 104, and I’m perfectly willing to go up to 999 if it’s necessary.  In the meantime…

Fact One:  There are far more active political parties here than there are in the US.

Fact Two:  SEVERAL of those parties are primarily of a type that wouldn’t fly in the US, namely, shades of decided socialism and communism.

Fact Three:  Unfortunately, many of these parties have stark political differences with one another that can only leave an unenlightened spectator scratching her head.  While I can dimly guess why the Maoists might not get along very well with the Unified Marxist-Leninists, at first glance it’s really hard to guess why the Marxist-Leninists insist they’re a separate party from the Unified Marxist-Leninists, especially since the former only have 8 seats in the CA, as opposed to the 103 of the latter.

Fact Four:  Multiple political parties here have a youth league more or less connected to them.

Fact Five:  The youth leagues tend to include students roughly of college age.

Fact Six:  Many of the youth leagues have the unfortunate reputation of occasionally making life difficult for members of other parties, or even of inciting violence.

But the situation at the moment isn’t like anything I’ve seen here.

Honestly, for a while I wasn’t keeping track of the local news very well.  In between the numerous October holidays, and multiple days of being sick, and the trip to Pokhara, and trying to stay caught up with work despite all that, and the fact that my husband keeps hiding our copies of The Kathmandu Post somewhere… well, the point at the moment is that I didn’t even have the chance to notice a short blurb about it at the time, were any published.

Apparently, nearly a month ago, two youths returning home from a trip reportedly got into an altercation with members of the Young Communist League.  The next part is fuzzy to me; either said two youths were openly abducted by members of the league, or else they somehow otherwise got separated from their friends.

And they disappeared.

Until yesterday, when reports surfaced that their bodies had been found, buried in a farmer’s field.

Worse, the Unified Marxist-Leninist group claimed the two slain youths as members of their group, and, in outrage, they announced the bandh.  It began mid-morning yesterday, and when the chowks started being blocked, traffic started disappearing.  Today the bandh began earlier, and by 9 am most major intersections in the entire city had been blocked off.

Months ago, I’d passed through a chowk recently cleared-out by the police, the air still smoky from the tires the protesters had burned.  I’d been in a car when forty youths came marching down a street, eight abreast and more like kids in a parade than outraged inciters of violence.  I’ve occasionally seen convoys of vehicles, or people afoot, proudly waving flags, especially the red-backed hammer and sickle.

Today, for the first time, I actually saw the roads nearly emptied of all motorized traffic.  At the main chowk we travel through, I saw a gathering of upset youth, who had stretched a rope across the roads entering the chowk from all 4 directions.  They stopped all on-coming traffic and turned back cars and motorcycles, though I noticed them first speaking with the riders or drivers who approached them, and at times they actually let someone through–maybe if they could justify their travel with a good enough reason?

Too, I noticed 20 or so police keeping an eye on the situation, not interfering, but watching and evidently ready to intercede if anything bad happened.  And, politely, the only traffic that the protesters didn’t even try to stop, instead lifting their rope for and immediately waving straight through, was all blue-plated vehicles, because in Kathmandu blue license plates indicate foreign diplomats and international aid workers.

In great interest I watched a convoy of 4 vehicles all stamped with the prominent logo of “UN”.  My husband assumed they were just driving through the chowk.  But I know I actually saw them circle it at least a couple of times, and I wonder if the people in the vehicles were simply observing the situation.  I’ve never seen that many UN vehicles all together at once.  And the United Nations has a Mission in Nepal right now, invited in following the civil war, and it’s true that part of their mandate covers human rights, which includes the right to assembly and peaceful protest.

And it’s hard to avoid comparisons.  Imagine if, the next time a youth was found slain in New York City, people poured out into the streets and stopped all traffic for a day or two in protest.  Then again, imagine if the college chapters of Republicans and Democrats hated one another enough to attack each other–even to the extent of murdering two young members of the other party.

Without a doubt, Nepal is a different place, both more brusque and more attentive, and it’s a strange combination.

We hear the bandh may continue tomorrow, too.  Then again, I’m currently reading reports of comments from top government ministers, who have announced they are most certainly paying attention and forming a commission to investigate the case and take appropriate action based on that investigation.  And, meanwhile, members of the Young Communist League insist they weren’t involved at all, either in abducting or killing the youths.

So what will happen next?  It can’t be written yet.

Nepali of the Day:

chowk:  intersection

bandh:  universal strike; closure of the city and roads as a form of political protest

pakrinu:  to arrest

samuha:  group

vidyarthi:  students

samasya:  problem

marnu:  to die

karan:  reason, cause

samadhan:  solution

aaja:  today

thiyo:  there was

Ke bhayo:  What’s wrong?  What happened?

“Aaja, thulo bandh thiyo.”

“Kina?  Ke bhayo?”

“Thulo samasya.  Dui vidyarthi marnuhunchan.”

Nepali Politics 103

Now that you’re somewhat up to speed on Nepal’s past, the present hopefully makes a little more sense.

Because on August 15, while my Internet was out, the next critical event in Nepal’s political history occurred: the Maoists negotiated heavily with a lot of people, and the limbo since the April elections finally ended.

The Maoist party rejoined Nepal’s government with their leader, Prachanda, as the new prime minister. The same day, Girija Prasad Koirala ended his time as interim prime minister, stepping down with a formal congratulations to his successor.

Okay, does this make sense? Remember, the elections were in April — to choose 601 representatives to write a new constitution. At the end of May a republic was declared, and in June the king quietly left his palace. (Which we drove right in front of today; it’s quite impressive.) In July the Constituent Assembly (CA; said 601 people above) elected Ram Baran Yadav as the first president of Nepal. Now, in August, the new prime minister has been chosen, and he’s setting up his cabinet.

The “limbo” lasted from April until now, as the various political parties within the CA all bickered over how to set up and run the government. More than once, one or another threatened to, or temporarily did, resign from the government entirely. We have a quote on our fridge that I cut out of one of the first newspapers here, one of those quotes that the editorial staff felt strongly enough about to place in large type in its own text box in the middle of the article. It says, “Yes, I can confirm our party has withdrawn from the government. We just didn’t have time to file before the end of office hours today.”

Within a few days they were back in the government. Again. Until they withdrew. Again. And…

With all this going on, for four months it seemed like Nepal had no real government at all. At least, such the newspapers bitterly complained. When Koirala went to a summit meeting of South Asian nations at the start of this month, writers groaned about his status as “interim” prime minister and wondered what image they were portraying to the rest of the world.

Really, though, I think the timeline paragraph above does represent some definite progress. Each step took a month, but each happened, in a fairly comprehensible order. And during the so-called chaos, life in Kathmandu proceeded normally, as near as I could tell. Granted, we only got here in June. But traffic police stand at the major intersections directing traffic; fruit and vegetable stalls display fresh produce; stores feature piles of goods for sale; vehicular and pedestrian and other traffic clogs the streets daily… and while that’s frequently interrupted by protests, the protests are temporary and largely peaceful.

For us, they’re just a mild inconvenience. This morning it meant we arrived at fencing class half an hour late because a reported one thousand Buddhist monks were parading through the streets ahead of us. We never saw any of them at all; we’ve seen protesters in person only once, when a group of about 40 young people marched down the street beside us, all of them neatly grouped in rows of five and walking in solidarity toward an indeterminate point to the north. None carried signs, or even shouted slogans, near as I could tell. Many of them smiled, proud because of their mission, or grinning because of the lark of snarling traffic by force of numbers… I couldn’t tell which.

I have no idea if any of them are achieving their goals, and often I’m fuzzy on just what those goals are, anyway. As frequently noted, I’m still toddling through elementary Nepali. The English-language papers report various types of protest, from the odd (students demanding a 50% discount on public transport, scorning the 35% offered to them) to the more sober (Maoist Victims’ Group, raising their voices for compensation for themselves or family members injured in the recent civil war).

We have had one other strange political experience over the weekend. Yesterday morning, as I finished reading A Passage to India, in the distance I heard an amplified voice. I paid it little attention for a while; the workers at the wrought iron shop near our house often have a blaring radio turned loud enough for them to hear it over their hammering. I rather like the radio here, because I enjoy both Nepali and Hindi music. But part of my mind thought the voice continued for an awful long time, and out of sync with the music…

My husband called me upstairs and we peered out our windows at a man holding a loud speaker. About 5 – 10 other people accompanied him, two carrying flags, a few carrying a red blanket in which they were collecting money, as donations, apparently. And none of those flags were Nepal’s refreshingly different national flag; instead they were red, with hammer and sickle.

We couldn’t understand a word the man said. We have no idea whether they were actually Maoists, or members of one of Nepal’s other communist groups. We just peeked at them but otherwise stayed back; we watched some of our neighbors walk out onto their terraces, leaning over to listen for a moment, their eyes a bit narrowed, before they turned and went inside, or nonchalantly continued with their outdoor tasks of washing the clothes or hanging up laundry. The little group continued, none deterred. And as they disappeared out of sight, we caught several pictures from our roof. I’ll post them tomorrow, or edit this post then; it’s late for me to fiddle with finding the camera and downloading pictures now.

Nepal is practicing democracy. It’s still a fairly new idea here. But they’re definitely fond of expressing varied political aspirations.

Nepali of the day:

sarkari: governmental

mantri: government minister

bandh: literally, “shut”; refers to a strike, or a day when a group calls on certain businesses or businesses in a certain area to close

Nepali Politics 102

(I saved this post as a draft just before the Internet went down; it’s remarkable how much the political situation has changed since I wrote it, which see Nepali Politics 103)

As I learn more about Nepal’s political situation, I’ll post it here regularly. For you to read, certainly — but also for me to use to sort out what on earth’s going on, and so that I can look back at it as something of a map of what happened.

The previous post on Nepali politics mentioned nothing about the Koiralas. I recognized that as an oversight at the time, but I also did it on purpose precisely because I thought I might give them their own post. Considering that Girija Prasad Koirala just led Nepal’s delegation to a South Asian conference, I thought it might be a good time to talk about him and his family.

Who are the Koiralas? Well, think of them as the Bushes of Nepal. Or the Kennedys. Or, if you’d like a closer parallel to Nepal’s level of govenment, maybe the Adamses. If you want nearby geographic parallels, think Nehrus.

I’m sure you get the idea. Basically, over and beyond the recently stepped-down king, they’ve been a political dynasty steering Nepal for the last 60 years.

I’ll list, because that’s convenient:

Krishna Prasad Koirala — father of the men below; a leading businessman; exiled to India for part of his life; follower of Mahatma Gandhi

Bishweshar Prasad (B. P.) Koirala — prime minister 1959-61; 1st elected prime minister of Nepal; forced out of office and spent much of the rest of his life in prison or exile; wrote  well-regarded & popular literature as well; founder of the Nepali Congress (NC) political party

Girija Prasad Koirala — served various stints in office as prime minister between 1991 and 2008; in 1991 became 1st democratically elected prime minister since his older brother (above); currently acting as interim prime minister, considering the disputing parties working on the new constitution have yet to form an official government

And on that note, the newly elected president, Ram Baran Yadav, apparently has decided he is as exasperated with the delays of the disputing parties as is the rest of the country. Today he announced a deadline for the Maoists to put together a body of ministers and appoint a new prime minister.

The Maoists have been balking at participating in the government ever since their candidate lost the recent election to President Yadav. Maybe his invitation to them will help overcome their annoyance at overwhelmingly winning the April elections only to lose the presidential election to a coalition of other parties. We’ll see.

Stay tuned for whatever happens next.

(which see Nepali Politics 103, because it already happened over a week ago)

Nepali Politics 101

Today seems like a significant time for writing this.

After all, today Nepal’s first president — ever — was sworn in, just down the road from where we live.

I mentioned on Saturday that a presidential election was occurring. I didn’t want to get into details then, but now I’ll offer this introductory course to the political system of Nepal. Otherwise nothing that happens here will make a bit of sense.

An absurdly brief history of Nepal:

A bodhisatva, or a god, came in search of a flower and drained a lake, creating a Kathmandu temple, and many people came there to worship. Or a lake drained millions of years ago, and then thousands of years ago, people wandered out of Africa and into the foothills of the Himalayas. In whichever case, for several thousands of years, there were various monarchies and kingdoms. Then, in the 1800s the Prime Minister Jung Bahadar Rana gained an upper hand and set himself, in reality, above the royal family itself, though he continued to rule in their name. (He achieved this by remaining collected during an impromptu massacre of the royal court.) Then, in the 1950s, the royal family decided they were tired of being figureheads, so they slipped into the Indian Embassy and asked for asylum. After some arguing, matters were settled so that the royal family would again both rule and reign over Nepal. In the ensuing half-century, many very interesting events occurred, which boil down to the government being a bit shaky, see-sawing between democracy and royalist rule.

Then, in the ’90s, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) decided to agitate against the ruling government, and demanded abolition of the monarchy. A civil war ensued, as pleasant as those usually are. In 2001, the crown prince assassinated nearly his entire family and died himself a few days later. His uncle became king, and tried to put down the Maoist movement. In late 2005, the Maoists declared a ceasefire and started negotiations to join the government themselves. In April 2008, the Maoists won (by a landslide) national elections that international observers agreed were unusually free and peaceful. On May 28, Nepal was declared a federal democracy, thereby abolishing the monarchy. On June 11 the former king moved out of the palace.

On June 16 we arrived.

Since then, the officials elected in the April elections have been drafting a new constitution and establishing a new government. On Saturday they held (amongst themselves — ie, not a national election) a vote to fill the newly-created post of president. Today, Ram Baran Yadav was sworn into office. More will continue happening in the future, I’m sure.

(deep breath) Did you get all that?

This is the 101 course, meant as an overview, an introduction. In that spirit, the rest of this post won’t even be in sentences — vocabulary and key people & events, anyone?

Vocabulary:

Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) — do you need more definition than half the post?!  all right, keep reading for future courses

Nepali Congress — 2nd largest political party in Nepal; has been urging democracy since 1947

Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) — more moderate than the Maoists; 3rd largest party

Terai — the southern third of Nepal, mainly lowland jungle and fertile agricultural area

Madhesi — people who live in the Terai; many feel slighted by the national government situated in the hills

Key Events:

Buddhism’s founding — Siddharta Gautama, the Buddha, was born in southern Nepal, c. 563 BC

Kot Massacre — 1846 event that involved the deaths of hundreds of courtiers and local rulers

People’s War/Nepalese Civil War — 1996-2006 fighting that left at least 12,000 dead

May 28, 2008 — the Nepali monarchy was abolished

Key Figures:

Jung Bahadar Rana — the man who survived the Kot Massacre and put his family in real control of Nepal for a century

Gyanendra Bikram Shah Dev — the king who just stepped down

Prince Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah — the crown prince who committed the royal massacre in 2001

Prachanda — nickname of Pushpa Kamal Dahal, leader of the Maoist party

Ram Baran Yadav — new president of Nepal, a Madhesi; former secretary of the Nepali Congress party