Stop building project

It is more than strange that a building complex contemplated by the Karmachari Sanchaya Kosh (Employees Provident Fund) almost a decade and half ago should now begin to take shape against the wishes of the local people. The digging for the building that began over 12 years ago resulted in the stone water spouts of Sundhara, one of the landmarks of the city, going dry, and due to public ire then, the building construction was stopped. It now transpires that the massive building is, after all, going to be constructed right in the centre of the city and in an area that is officially designated "green area". The past ward chairmen of the locality where the proposed building is to go up had objected to its construction. But the present chairman, who though elected as an UML candidate changed his allegiance to ML, appears to be convinced that the new building will not in any way infringe on the historical heritage of the area. At a time when individual citizens are not allowed to construct houses more than 13 metres tall, the Provident Fund has inexplicably been permitted to construct a 30-metre 8-storeyed building. Even more serious perhaps is whether the land which locals say is public property really belongs to the Fund. For the government or any other individual has no right to "gift" public land to any individual or institution. Because of the practice of doing so in the past, open spaces in the city have virtually vanished. Children now have no safe place to play in and take to the streets to play under the constant threat of being run over by vehicles.

Mayor Keshav Sthapit’s unconcealed glee at the construction is understandable given his penchant for the destruction of historic sites. To wit, the unjustified Kathmandu Metropolitan Municipality construction at Dharahara which was finally stopped by a court order. The site now bears the scars of woeful neglect by the municipality and by the Department of Archeology. The NGO, Nepal Heritage Society, too has done precious little about it. The result is that the Dharahara area has become an open public toilet, especially after sunset. Known or unknown to the Department of Archeology, digging has now commenced at Sundhara to make the water spouts "flow again" with deep drilled water, hopefully without the iron content. What is painful about all this is that when local residents tried to make even small changes at Sundhara, the Department of Archaeology threatened to jail them. Now large scale digging has commenced probably with the Provident Fund meeting the costs, yet the department that should be concerned is unconcerned. Is this because there is money at play? Or is there some other reason? The people would certainly like to know when the authorities will act even when so many of the rules and regulations made by the government are flouted. If government institutions cannot abide by the rule of law, is it surprising that individuals take the law into their own hands? It is a deadly serious matter but also funny that all those in authority talk about preservation of historic sites and in the name of "beautifying" the city spend unnecessary millions - maybe for possible kickbacks.

Trends and reflections in People’s War

By Hari Bhujel

To celebrate the sixth anniversary of the People’s War, the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) on February 13, 2001 indulged in bombings and in the distribution of pamphlets in several parts of the country. One major incident, an ambush involving Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Keshav Prasad Upadhyaya, has been viewed by the Nepalese intelligentsia as the initiation of the sixth anniversary and a strategic approach to counter the recently-formed Armed Police Force (APF). Some are of the view that the attack on the Chief Justice was a symbolic warning against the formation of the Special Court, which is especially aimed at bringing the insurgents to book.

Disturbing trends: It is now five years plus since the People’s War started in Nepal. What began as sporadic and unconnected killing of government officials and Nepali Congress workers in various parts of the country is now growing. The hilly terrain, the backwardness of the people, lack of communications, ethnic rivalries, and above all, the absence of a stable government in Kathmandu are ideal circumstances for the movement to expand and attract recruits. One well-known authority on Nepali politics, Prof. Paramanand of Delhi University, has described the movement as an "ill organized terrorist organization not bothered about ideology and carrying out killings for no concrete purpose." We agree that it is just a terrorist movement based on a thin veneer of ideology. It has no coordinated long-term strategy. The weapons used are primitive and the attacks lack sophistication. It is not led by any charismatic leader. There are no external players yet. But recent incidents show some disturbing trends which need to be examined.

Comrade Prachanda, alias Pushpa Kamal Dahal, while noting the rationale of the People’s War in a leaflet distributed by the CPN (Maoist) all over Nepal on February 13, 1996 said, "We are fully conscious that this war to break the shackles of thousands of years of slavery and to establish a new democratic state will be quite uphill, full of twists and turns and of a protracted nature. But this and this alone is the path of people’s liberation and a great and bright future." As in other Third World countries, the revolutionaries in Nepal must confront "three mountains" to achieve liberation: Their goals are to overthrow the bureaucrat-capitalist class and the state system, which are dependent on and serve imperialism; uproot semi-feudalism; and drive out imperialism. To do this, the CPN (Maoist) is applying Mao's strategy of a protracted people’s war - setting up base areas in the countryside and aiming to surround the cities, seizing nationwide power, and establishing a new democratic republic as a step toward building a new socialist society. Their struggle is a part of the world proletarian revolution.

It can be recalled that on February 13, 1996 at about 3:45 pm a group of people, both men and women, took out a procession, almost without any resistance, to the office of the Small Farmer’s Development Programme of the state-owned Agricultural Development Bank in Chyangli VDC (Village Development Committee) of Gorkha district in central Nepal.

At first, they gathered outside the office, located in a small village bazaar, and, while one of the youths gave a brief speech exposing the mechanism of exploitation of poor peasants by the bank and highlighting the need for peasants to capture it, another group overpowered the staff inside the office and took possession of all official papers. As they do not generally keep cash in such offices, the loan papers signed by the peasants and the land registration certificates (known as Lalpurja) deposited as collateral were seized. The Lalpurja were kept safe to be returned later to the respective peasants. In the surrounding villages, a bonfire was made out of the loan papers worth several million rupees and other documents. Then after one of them made a brief parting speech, they dispersed quickly and safely to their respective places. The whole thing was over within about half an hour and the nearest police outpost about a kilometre away was caught totally unawares.

The same day in the evening (between 8 pm and 11 pm) three police outposts, one each in Rolpa and Rukum districts in western Nepal and one in Sindhuli district in eastern Nepal, were seized by armed youths shouting Marxist-Leninist-Maoist slogans. In Rolpa district, which has been in the forefront of the militant resistance struggle for several years, the police outpost at Holeri was stormed by a militant team armed with local weapons and explosives.

Also on February 13, planned assaults were made against three more targets. In the capital, a soft-drink bottling factory owned by a multinational company was attacked and a portion of the building torched. Surprisingly, the company chose not to publicize the incident for unknown reasons. In Gorkha district, a liquor factory, owned by a comprador bourgeois, was blasted. As the police personnel happened to be enjoying a liquor session at the time after running about in connection with the bank incident, this incident was also hushed up maybe to hide their own embarrassment. In another highly successful action, the house of a notorious feudalist in Kavre district in eastern Nepal was raided at night by a large group of men and women, property and cash worth Rs 1.3 million was seized and loan documents worth several million rupees destroyed. Nobody was physically harmed in all these actions.

The same night, thousands of leaflets and posters, appealing to the public to follow the path of People’s War to smash the reactionary state and to establish a new democratic state, were distributed in major cities and the headquarters of more than 60 districts.

In this way, the People’s War kicked off on February 13, 1996. The targets clearly symbolize the principal enemy classes comprising feudalism, comprador and bureaucratic capitalism, and their state power. The forms of action resorted to in this initiation process are clearly seen to include guerrilla action, sabotage and propaganda.

Then for the first time, the People’s War made a coordinated attack on different places across the country. Earlier, incidents took place mostly in remote and least populated areas like Rukum, Dolpa and Salyan. Now it has spread in all directions, affecting districts bordering India (Janakpur, Birgunj, Sarlahi and Dang) and Taplejung, bordering Tibet. The inability of the police to deal effectively with the terrorists is another matter for concern. The politicians do not seem to be perturbed by the killings.
Prime Minister GP Koirala alone cannot solve the Maoist problem, unless all political parties work together to hammer out a solution.

Call from Heaven

By Raj Man

The strongest political party of the Kingdom of Nepal, Nepali Congress, completed its tenth general convention with an uncompromising and unpolitical mission - to build up the nation.

At the concluding session, party president Girija Prasad Koirala said that the politicians should not waste time in the struggle for power, rather, he suggested to them to work unitedly to contribute to building a strong, firm and transparent country. "It is not for power that we let innocent youths die during the Popular Movement. We ought to abandon covetousness and sacrifice our personal interests in the name of the country’s prosperity," he said.

In his short speech, Koirala urged party members not to prolong the programme. He urgently left the dais to report at the Public Accounts Committee to punish the culprit in the Lauda Air case, as he promised a forthright ago.

Former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who also fought the election (and licked the dust) was likewise impatient because the programme was getting lengthy. He stood up and requested the speakers to shorten their speeches. "It is too much, friends. All the ministers, lawmakers and director generals and managing directors of lucrative institutions should not waste their time in party politics."

He further criticised the tendency of some cunning leaders to create riots and organise Nepal bandhs from behind the screen and then go on foot to file a no-trust motion.

Another disillusioned candidate for the same post, Ram Hari Joshi, said in his saintly voice that at last after half a century, the NC activists are coming onto the right tract. "I am happy that now people are turning their back to opportunities of becoming ministers and lending their hands to an old man who never wishes to be in power despite his priceless contribution during the party’s hard times."

"Shut up you blockhead!" somebody cried out. He was none other than the once-upon-a-time great leader of the NC, Ganesh Man Singh. He was watching the whole programme from atop a thin tree branch near the stage. He said, "Mr Joshi, don’t ever say that power is nothing. Power makes a person strong, the party long-wearing and activists active. Don’t repeat the mistake I made a decade ago. It’s a chance which can make you a dictator if you accept and turn you into a tramp if you decline."

He jumped down from the tree and asked Mukunda Regmi, the coordinator of the Central Election Committee, to repeat the whole process. He said, "I want to fight for party president and become the prime minister of this country."

Natural disasters : Who are at risk and why ?

By Alok Rajouria

As live television footage of dead people being pulled out from earthquake rubble in Gujarat is beamed through satellite, the destructive force of an earthquake becomes apparent to Nepalese people who live on one of the most unstable tectonic plates on the planet. The threat of another major earthquake in Nepal is as real as the growing Himalayas and the need to understand the risks engendered by vulnerability, greater than ever before.

The impact of natural disasters upon people is a combined effect of the degree of the hazard and the vulnerability of the people exposed to it. In a case where vulnerability is nil, hazard is harmless, and in the absence of hazard, people, however vulnerable, are considered safe. It is a well-accepted fact that the poor in Nepal represent the most vulnerable group. But there is lack of deliberation on why this is so.

In global terms, it is estimated that 1.52 million deaths have occurred from earthquakes between the years 1900 and 1990. One of the costliest earthquakes in terms of human life occurred in China. The 1996 Tangshan earthquake killed as many as 242,000 people. An earthquake comparable to the one in Nepal and Bihar in 1934 which killed almost 8,600 people in this country would today, as one estimate goes, result in not less than 40,000 deaths and render 90,000 homeless. Lessons from various disasters are available, and new frontiers for research emerge as disaster mitigation efforts continue.

Experts say that over 95% of the deaths in earthquakes result from building failures. Coupled with this, infrastructural weakness, rapid urbanization, poor planning and lack of public awareness are generally blamed for the severity of the disasters. But factors like wealth and power, gender and even ethnicity have a bearing on vulnerability. While both the rich and the poor are at risk from earthquake, it is the poorer people that suffer most causalities and face greater difficulty in coping and recovering from the event. Worse, there have been cases where following a disastrous earthquake, the rich have emerged richer and the poor, who survived the disaster, became even poorer.

Research has substantiated the fact that the relatively poorer sections of society are more vulnerable to earthquakes than the rich. For instance, Piers Blaikie et. el. in their book "At Risk" discuss the earthquake of 1974 in Guatemala that killed 22,000 people. Most of those killed were found to have been living in the unsafe hinterland and in squatter settlements, whereas the upper and middle classes escaped virtually unscathed. In addition, those highland rural people who died were not only poor, they were indigenous Mayan Indians.

Therefore, factors responsible for the impact of disasters such a powerful earthquakes go far beyond unsafe housing. Vulnerability is associated with the prevalent social fabric and the economic justice practiced in a society; it has strong links with distribution of wealth and power. Sustainable development policies and actions can truly be sustainable only when the vulnerability of the people is reduced to an acceptable standard and the social structures and processes enable them to recover quickly from shocks and stresses. In other words, reduction of vulnerability to disasters must be recognized as a cross-cutting issue in development planning and implementation. Government policies have failed to recognize the fact that the poorest are at the greatest risk and that vulnerability reduction must be integrated in development planning and programs.

Besides the links between vulnerability and socio-economics, the vulnerability of people to disasters depends on gender as well. How the impact of disasters relates to gender represents one of the least researched areas. Although it is generally assumed that disasters affect men, women and children alike, it is not so.

To find the linkage between disaster and gender issues, Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) Nepal together with the Center for Policy Studies recently conducted a study focusing on the differential impact of flood upon gender. A team of experts visited five VDCs of Chitwan district, which were badly affected by the floods of 1993. "Livelihood Options for Disaster Risk Reduction in South Asia" implemented by ITDG (SA), Sri Lanka as part of a larger DFID-UK funded project, investigated how disaster affected men vis-a-vis women and compared their livelihoods during normal times, during the disaster and after the disaster.

Within the 5 VDCs covered by the study, as many as 1,000 families were affected by the floods. The death toll included 15 people (6 women, 4 men and 5 children) and cattle in the hundreds. The loss was more than material, people were psychologically affected for many years and many joint families were broken down to nuclear families due to the disaster.

The case study found that women suffer differently, and often more, than men during a flood. Women were more vulnerable in times of flood because their long hair was more liable to get tangled in bushes and trees, and the sari is an obstacle to quick escape. The disaster changed the livelihoods of many women whose work mostly revolved around domestic and farm activities. Following the loss of home and land, many of these women found themselves working as labourers whenever the opportunity came and at least two women were reduced to begging. Many female victims were found to be suffering from nightmares and other psychological problems. Displacement had reduced
the women’s access to natural resources as well.

Although many organizations besides the government rushed to the flood-affected areas for assistance, the rehabilitation activities were found not to be gender sensitive. The rehabilitation centres failed to provide special care to pregnant and lactating women, who, together with children, were most vulnerable. Similarly, lack of toilets in the rehabilitation centres also caused women more suffering.

The study concluded that there is lack of literature and gender dis-aggregated data on disaster management and that there is a need for gender sensitive disaster management planning. It has become evident that, besides integrating vulnerability reduction in mainstream development policies and plans, there is also a need to rethink disaster planning, relief and rehabilitation work from a vulnerability perspective incorporating such factors as poverty and gender.