As Kathmandu Metropolitan Police chief, Superintendent of Police (SP) Nawaraj Silwal had a long day in routine patrolling. [break]He had just arrested 12 student leaders who were creating disturbances in the middle of the city center with their “political demands.”
Over the radio, his voice echoed. “I’ve arrested everyone. None was spared.” He was firm. Silwal then ordered his assistant police officer to fetch the name list of those who were arrested.
Talking to Republica, he said that it was a shame his energy was wasted in trying to control daily protests and scuffles instead of curbing crime.
“It’s regular phenomena. Instead of working to prevent and intervene in crime and nab criminals, we have to run after politicians and political activists half the time,” Silwal said of the political activists who “try to take the law in their own hands.”
Silwal, who took over as the chief of Kathmandu Police last November, admits he’s struggled to contain protests and strikes that plague the capital, although new government measures have given the police greater powers to crack down on demonstrators.
After the fall of the Maoist government in May, the former rebels and their affiliate groups have held regular protests around the country ever since, “boycotting the public programs of the Prime Minister and President.”
Not to forget are Tibetans protestors, ethnic groups, families of the disappeared, and umpteen such groups regularly striking in the capital, sometimes bringing the whole city to a standstill.
“Instead of real policing of the community, 70% of our time is spent containing political events and running after politicians and their activists.”
But law and order situation still remains his priority.
Remnants of “People’s War”
When Nawaraj Silwal, 39, took over as Kathmandu police chief, the residents of Nepal’s capital were so disillusioned with the force that they weren’t even bothering to report crimes.
The remnants of the conflict still linger, with crime rate rising in the city, which according to analysts, is a hangover of the civil war even after the peace deal in 2006. The capital became a hotspot for crime.
“When I took over, the business community was in a state of panic. Every other day, there were cases of extortion and abduction, but they were hardly ever reported,” Silwal said in his office with a larger-than-life size of Greater Kathmandu and a flag of Nepal.
Often, criminal gangs operated with impunity, many of them enjoying political patronage to extort huge sums of money from local businesses, and even corruption in the police was rife. “Everyone was threatened, from top business houses to retailers.”
Silwal said that during his early interactions with the people, he felt that they had no sense of security and “there was no state presence.” “They didn’t believe the state would be able to handle the problems they were facing daily,” Silwal said, which became his primary concern.
According to reports, as many as 70 abductions of local businessmen took place between 2006 and 2007, most of which went unreported to the police. Not to forget petty crimes, robberies and unaccounted murders.
Many countries, including the United States and United Kingdom, released travel advisories regarding the rise in unsafe activities in the capital, affecting the country’s tourism that contributes 17% to the GDP. A joint notice of embassies in Nepal even asked the government to address the issue of law and order situation in Nepal.
Policing a post-conflict country
SP Silwal has been with Nepal Police since 1990 but he had never seen officers and men so discouraged when he took over.
Nepal’s decade-long civil war between Maoist rebels and the state, in which 1,362 police personnel were killed, left the force demoralized, underequipped and woefully underfunded.
The lethargic police department was too weak to counter the Maoist insurgents, who for five years battled unsuccessfully to contain the “People’s War” until the king declared emergency rule in 2001 and ordered the army to take over the fight.
Since then, Nepal’s police remained a mere spectator as law and order situation in the country kept deteriorating.
“The war definitely hit morale. When I took over, the officers desperately needed motivating, which turned out to be tougher than I expected,” said Silwal, who was the head of human rights unit in Nepal Police during the conflict.
“I worked hard and wanted to lead by example. I also stood by them even when they made mistakes.” This helped the policemen, nearly 3,000 under him, to work without “hoping for anything in return.”“Modern policing today is more about management than enforcing ideas. You have to be a good manager to be a good police officer,” he said.
Silwal took over with a vow to change the law and order situation in the country, and says without which “the democracy will cease to exist.”
He started by trying to regain people’s trust “which wasn’t there anymore.” Silwal tried to work with the community and formed community-based policing networks to fight crime together at a time when people had lost their hope in any state security apparatus.
One of his first actions as police chief was dispatching officers to give security advice to residents and setting up a text message service for people to report their concerns anonymously.
“Modern police can’t work in isolation. People must support the police to tackle crime in their communities,” Silwal said. “I went to the public to change their notion about us and told them about our challenges and our weaknesses.”
Silwal also worked on the new setup of a special anti-kidnapping unit, which he says has smashed six abduction rings and secured convictions in all 30 cases reported in the last six months. “We had 31 kidnapping cases and solved all but one, with all the culprits behind bars,” he said.
But Silwal’s biggest coup since taking on the job nearly a year ago came last month when the last of the city’s most wanted men, gang leader Dinesh Adhikari, gave himself up.
Adhikari, nicknamed “chari” or “bird” for his ability to evade arrest, was wanted in connection with eight separate murders and a string of extortion cases, and is now in jail awaiting trial.
Silwal claims that Adhikari gave himself up because there was tremendous pressure on him, being the last “don” of Kathmandu. “He knew he would be arrested one day. So he gave himself up, hoping that the state would be softer on his punishment,” Silwal said.
Earlier, Nepal Police arrested feared gang leaders like Milan Chakrey, Deepak Manangey, and Raju Gorkhali and 51 others who were wanted by the police for years for murders, extortion, and illegal business but had dodged them due to their powerful connections and political intervention.
“I started identifying and hitting hard against the gangs operating in Kathmandu. All these goondas (goons) are behind the bars now,” Silwal said proudly.
“The criminal gangs operating in the capital had protection from politicians. When I began arresting the gang leaders, I sometimes even had to threaten the politicians to stop their lobbying for the criminals.” Silwal warned political leaders and parties not to interfere by threatening to expose them publicly if they did so.
He also set up a special Professional Standard Unit (PSU) to tackle corruption in the force, urging the public to report unprofessional policing, adding that even the police department has had “bad apples.”
“We had corrupt practices, but I asked the people to report if they found police personnel not working with integrity,” he said. “I asked them to file their complaints directly to me if my staffs weren’t acting according to their professional standards.”
The results show it
The last few months have seen a substantial decrease in crimes, Silwal claims. According to police records, the number of people reporting crime was 804 in 2006. It has grown to 1,291 by mid-2009. Silwal says it’s because of the trust people have now in Nepal Police.
“Dashain (the biggest Hindu festivals in Nepal) earlier this month saw almost no crime reported. In previous years, we used to get many such reports, from petty thefts to armed robberies and brawls,” Silwal says.
Now people even ask the police to look after their unmanned houses when they leave Kathmandu.
“We believe this is a great achievement for us,” said police officer Rabindra Bahadur Singh, who heads Silwal’s Professional Standard Unit (PSU), which now receives two reports daily on average against unprofessional police practices through phone, email, texts and even letters.
The force also claims to receive more reports of petty crimes like prostitution and gambling in their neighborhoods. “People have regained their trust in us. When we interact now, they are more open to sharing their inside information with us,” one officer confided.
“I’ve always said I’ll let my performance stand on its own,” reiterated SP Silwal. “I think the leadership of this department is going in the right direction. I think we’ve made much progress, especially in reducing crime.”
The number of first-degree murders in the city has gone down to 49 this year from 71 last year, and other murders (including accidents) from 382 to 281. Armed robbery is down from 50 two years ago to 19 this year; and petty theft from 215 to 161.
This father of two girls also started a unit in his department to advise schoolchildren about self-defense and how to protect themselves from being victims of crime.
Lone Ranger from the “West”
Silwal is a man of gentle traits in his department, something Nepal Police were perhaps in dire need of. His years at the United Nations brought home international exposures and experiences.
In East Timor, he worked as a police instructor at the academy; in Liberia, as an expert at police training and strengthening the police institution; and in Mozambique, as head of mission. He was one of the members in the panel of experts for Ivory Coast, studying the financing of conflict by both the government and the rebels.
With double Masters in public administration and law, and training with the FBI in the US, Silwal had opportunities in the West, and still visits universities as faculty.
He said he came back to Kathmandu to work for Nepal Police again to lend his exposures and field experiences in operations.
Still a long way ahead
According to police estimation, Kathmandu is home to 3.5 million people with around 1.5 million using it as transit everyday.
“But we have only 3,000 officers and men. In international norms, there should be one police for every 300 citizens in city areas. But here, we have one for 1,600,” Silwal thus expressed lack of resources and manpower. “And technology-wise, we’re not only ill equipped, we actually have nothing,” he said.
Silwal declares that the idea of traditional policing doesn’t work “because there are new technologies being used in today’s crime.” From his modest office space near the Kathmandu Durbar Square, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, he says, “The modalities of crime are changing, and so are the new crime gangs. The police must be able to come out of its shell and look beyond its past legacies.”
The only problem he can’t contain is the growing prostitution in the streets of Kathmandu.
“It’s a social problem, so it’s not just about policing,” Silwal said, citing lack of employment opportunities. “If there is decent work for these sex workers, the practice can decrease by 60%.”
But change for him comes in stages, and so he is patient about the situation in Nepal.
“You can’t succeed if you want to change the world overnight. There would be massive resistance,” said the SP with conviction. After all, he was the head of the human rights cell in Nepal Police during the Maoist-state conflict.
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