 |
Kathmandu Sunday May 06, 2001 Baishakh 23, 2058.
|
NHRC members against ISDP
Post Report
KATHMANDU, May 5 - As the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) prepares to
be mobilized for internal security and development package, members of the National Human
Rights Commission (NHRC) and leaders of the main opposition party today expressed deep
concern on the government’s recent decision to deploy the army within the country,
and said that the move would only serve to accelerate violence.
"This is merely like a continuation of the
government’s series of tyrannical attack on poor Nepalis - like the Kilo Shera Two
and Romeo Operation that were carried out by the Nepal Police in the mid-western hills a
few years back," Sushil Pyakurel, a member of the NHRC said Saturday. "More
blood will flow, and more poor will die. Perhaps that is what the government wants."
Addressing a talk program oraganized here today by CPN-UML
Gorkha-Kathmandu Liaison Forum, he said that the Maoists are a result of social,
economical and political discrimination and the solution could be found only after
analyzing the real causes. "It is ridiculous that the government still intends to
solve the Maoist problem through the nozzle of the gun," Pyakurel added.
His attack on the government move came nine days before the
army moves into a Maoist-insurgency hit district for the first time after the underground
rebels launched their "people’s war" vowing to overthrow constitutional
monarchy and the multiparty democracy.
The army is marching to the western hill district of Gorkha
on May 14 as part of the government’s recently unveiled Integrated Security and
Development Program (ISDP). The government plans to develop Gorkha, the home district of
underground Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai, as a model among 22 districts where the ISDP
package is being sent.
Under the package, the government plans to develop
infrastructure and grassroots level project, ensuring full security by mobilizing the army
who will be assisted by the Armed Police Force and the Nepal Police. Also being pushed are
various poverty eradication, income generating and women empowerment and social upliftment
programs.
Commenting on the ISDP package, Kapil Shrestha, another
member of NHRC, said that the document is similar to the yesteryear-plans like the Gaon
Pharka Abhiyan of the early Panchayati government. "Even 11 years after the
restoration of democracy, the Pachayati mentality still rules the country," he added.
And continued, "It is tragic that 20 percent of the
total national budget is being spent on security in a country where around half the
population live below poverty line. This is the result of narrow mentality and one-sided
thinking. The government thinks that the root of the problem is the Maoists, which is not
true."
He said that although Nepal has signed international human
rights conventions, which other Asian states have not dared to touch, the situation of
human rights is continuing to deteriorate. "If such remains the case, I am afraid
that one day the government would terminate the NHRC itself," he added sarcastically.
Bachaspati Devkota, UML lawmaker from Gorkha, expressed his
concerns that "Gorkha is being used as a chopping table" to provoke violence.
"Security is being served to us with the sugar-coat of development, but this security
could cost many innocent people their lives," he added.
CPN-UML Polit-Bureau Member Jhala Nath Khanal said that the
ISDP document was prepared with administrative idea only and it lacks political vision and
farsightedness. "This is only an attempt to plunge the nation into violence. And
Gorkha is going to be a model of the government’s tyranny, and cruelty," he
said.
Other Stories
|
