As May 28 approached, various groups started organizing strikes to force the government to heed their demands. During early May, students belonging to the Nepali Congress, UML, and UCPN (Maoist) organized a banda that took the nation by surprise. The day after the strike, leaders of the mother political parties offered lame excuses that satisfied no one. These had previously signed agreements that they wouldn’t allow bandas during the Nepal Tourism Year 2011. Should we believe that they have no control over their student unions? For example, did the Youth Force leader in Biratnagar recently beat up a Nagarik correspondent without receiving a nod from UML bosses?
The Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) which had paralyzed the nation on April 27, also called a strike for Friday, May 13. However, Kathmandu witnessed a counter-rally that must have sent shivers to the banda organisers. Starting from Thamel, tourism-officials, businessmen, taxi-drivers, private car owners, and motorcyclists paraded around the main streets of Kathmandu to end in a mass meeting at Ratna Park. Many held placards that stated, "We want the constitution, not a banda." They organized two more such rallies in response to other strikes before May 28, and boldly defied the ban on vehicular movements which the banda organizers wanted to enforce. These patriots know that one day without work costs the nation a loss of Rs 100 million. Other Nepali cities can duplicate what these proud Kathmanduites have done, and gradually kill strikes in their localities.
Our expatriate friends too played their role. Embassies of UK, US, Germany, Australia, Denmark, Switzerland, and a delegation from the European Union issued a statement that bandas use the "threat of violence to restrict freedom of movement and people’s rights to normal life. Strikes cannot be approved of or supported by the international community." A day prior to this declaration, UK’s DFID had decided to discontinue funding NEFIN, responsible for paralyzing the nation on April 27 and May 13. Although NEFIN called DFID’s decision childish and leaders Dr Om Gurung, Raj Kumar Lekhi continued to put on brave faces, loss of two million British pounds per year should teach these and other banda-loving maniacs a lesson.
In addition, US ambassador Scott H DeLisi announced that his embassy will not grant visas to banda-organizing political leaders. This bold move will severely disgrace politicians who can’t think of anything else to air their grievances. Many have sons and daughters studying in the US, and denials of visa will give them red faces. US embassy’s black-list should begin with chairmen and presidents like Sushil Koirala, Jahlanath Khanal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, and Kamal Thapa, whose party RPP-N stopped vehicular movement in New Baneshwar for three days. Anyone can accuse the embassy of hypocrisy if it denies the visa to only small "fishes". Ambassador Scott H DeLisi should start with the top leaders of each party. They deserve punishment for both sins of commission and omission. They either encouraged bandas or didn’t do enough to prevent them.
On May 27, impunity received a blow when Sushil Pyakurel, Kapil Shrestha, Kanak Mani Dixit, Subodh Pyakurel, Gopal Krishna Siwakoti, Charan Prasai, Mandira Sharma, and Sunil Ranjan Singh filed a writ in the Supreme Court (SC) to seek the nullification of the appointment of the Maoist Agni Prasad Sapkota as Minister for Information and Communications. Sapkota had instructed the abduction and killing of Kavre’s Arjun Lama on April 29, 2005. (Rumor has it that he also ordered the killing of my brother, retired major Mohan Khatry, on October 17, 2002.)
Perhaps, law and order will one day prevail in our country after all. Positive moves by patriots and expatriates against banda and impunity have given us hope that a better future lies ahead. Both deserve our gratitude.
On May 5, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal (OHCHR-N) had objected to Sapkota holding such a post. PM Jhalanath Khanal, Maoist Chairman Dahal’s poodle, had just remained stoically silent. Of course, we do have the National Human Rights Commission but the Maoist member in it makes sure the former rebels don’t come under scrutiny.
On May 7, Agni Sapkota accused the UN of "interfering in Nepal’s politics in the name of fighting for human rights," an argument he has learnt from the Maoist China. However, such logic doesn’t hold water anymore. The international community still smarts over the fact that it didn’t intervene early enough to prevent the ethnic cleansing in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, and has acted quickly to avoid such a situation in Libya. The worldwide human fellowship demands that the strong help the justice-denied weak.
Murdered Arun Lama’s wife, Purnimaya, who has dedicated her life to bring justice to her husband’s killers, certainly received a jolt when PM Khanal appointed Sapkota to such a high post. She had moved the Supreme Court to order the "District Police Office and District Administration Office of Kavre to file a murder case against Sapkota and others." The police didn’t move a finger. How could they against the powerful Maoist lobby, leading the government now and in the past? Now, the writ in the SC on May 27 by other patriots, who want to see an end to impunity in our country, has given Purnimaya hope.
Author Kanak Mani Dixit (Peace Politics of Nepal) notes that both the NA and the UCPN (Maoist) have an unwritten agreement to keep quiet over each other’s human rights violation. According to it, the NA will remain mute over Arjun Lama’s murder (by the Maoist Sapkota) if the Maoists will maintain a silence-vow over Maina Sunuwar’s killing (by NA’s Basnet). On June 2, the UK Ambassador John Tucknott expressed "serious concern that the government [especially the Home Ministry under the Maoist Krishna Bahadur Mahara] is poised to withdraw criminal cases including those related to the killings of Arjun Lama and Maina Sunuwar." Mahara wants to humor the NA by also including the Sunuwar case. Such "mutual" instances could multiply: The Doramba killings by NA versus the Madi bombing by the Maoists, the Bhairabnath disappearance by the NA versus the butchering of teachers/journalists by Maoists, etc.
The Nepali population had great hopes that the new commander-in-chief, Chhatra Man Singh Gurung, would promote human rights by bringing the NA culprits to justice. However, he tows the same, our-man-right-or-wrong line of his predecessors, Rookmangud Katawal and Pyar Jung Thapa. Recently, the UN has asked Katawal to deliver justice to Yubaraj Giri, a civilian the NA tortured, within 108 days. Will Katawal prove by obeying that he belonged to legal NA or will he cook up excuses like "why not deal with the Maoist first?" Shame to you, NA, for regularly equating yourself with the Maoists, whom the US still regards as terrorists!
Perhaps, law and order will one day prevail in our country after all. These positive moves by patriots and expatriates against banda and impunity have given us hope that a better future lies ahead. Both deserve our gratitude.
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