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Kathmandu,Monday March 13, 2000 Fagun 30, 2056.
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Why sophisticated weapons ?
It must be admitted that the Home Secretary is
jumping the gun by saying that since the rebels are using grenades and automatic weapons
to attack, the police are getting armed with sophisticated weapons. The large casualties
suffered by Nepal Police in Ghartigaon does not prove that Maoists were using automatic
weapons. What weapons were used during that incident has to be ascertained by an
independent commission of experts, not amateurs. This also indicates that the police are
rather too eager to use automatic weapons against their own countrymen in the conflict.
Does it also mean that if the rebels use tanks the police should also be given tanks?
The Inspector General of Police has gone on record
as saying that by examining the bullet holes and eyewitness accounts of the injured men,
we have concluded that the rebels had used automatic rifles. The "we" that
reached the conclusion that the rebels had used automatic weapons in the IGP's statement
is still a very mysterious body which was neither constituted by the government nor
declared by any authoritative body of His Majesty’s Government. What type of
automatic weapons were used by the rebels has still to be announced to the general public,
but the Home Minister, the Home Secretary and the IGP seem extremely eager to procure
automatic weapons as early as possible.
It could be that the lure of sharing the hefty
commission while procuring the weapons is the driving force and it also looks evident that
the deal has to be finalized before the Bhattarai government goes out of power.
The Home Minister has also stressed that lack of
funding has prevented the police force from being brought up-to-date, but if anyone looks
at the records of the allocation of funds by the Ministry of Finance over the last five
years, the Home Ministry has taken the lion’s share of the annual budget every single
year. In fact, the recent probe by the Parliamentary Committee on the misuse of government
funds by the Home Ministry gives a clear picture of what really is happening with the
funds allocated to the Home Ministry.
Accounts given by the IGP about the incident at
Ghartigaon clearly indicate that it would be better if the police got more training on how
to quickly and effectively reinforce their posts during times of danger even under threat
or pressure. In a conflict, the qualities and the performance of the individual is more
important than the weapon and this aspect has been adequately proven by the Maoists.
Records of police and Maoist encounters reveal that in most cases the police have been
defeated after they ran out of bullets and this indicates that the fire discipline of the
Nepal Police is very poor and with automatic weapons, this problem will be magnified. The
loot of police weapons over the last four years also suggests that the Maoist party would
be most delighted by the decision to arm the police with automatic weapons because then
they would have a better incentive to attack police posts.
C B Basynet
Maharajgunj, Kathmandu |
