Endless Violence

THE continuing violence unleashed by the Maoists has come in for a yet another condemnation by Nepal's development partners. In a pass release on Wednesday, the European Union has blasted what it called the increasing outrages of the Maoists insurgents in Nepal and called on them to immediately stop the violence campaign. The EU, the statement said, unreservedly condemned the ongoing insurgency and called on the Maoists to immediately stop the systematic campaign of killing, harassment and destruction. Previously too, the EU has time and again called on the Maoists to stop their mindless violence campaign and asked them to enter into negotiations and find a peaceful solution to the problem. This call has fallen on deaf ears. What is particularly reprehensible is that despite a recent pledge by the Maoists to put a halt to killing of party activists and sabotage of physical infrastructure, Maoists across the country has continued their spree of killing innocent people and bombing public and bombing public infrastructures. Such a contradiction between what the Maoists have said and what they are doing naturally raises the question of whether the government and the people of Nepal could take word from them seriously. There has been no explanation from the Maoists as to such inconsistency persists. If they were sincere about their call for a halt to killing of innocent people and destruction of public infrastructure, it should have been demonstrated through action, rather inaction, on the ground. But unfortunately for all practical purposes, seen against the continued violence, that call seems to have been made as a propaganda ploy.

The EU statement, issued by the Royal Danish Embassy which holds the presidency of the EU, also took note of the increasing awareness by the Nepalese authorities of human rights violations by the security forces and of their commitment to halt such violations and hoped that the security forces would achieve its objectives with regard to improving their human rights record. The government must try harder to fulfill the commitments it has made to respect human rights to ensure that the innocents are not caught in the battle against the Maoists. The stress by the EU, which is Nepal's important development partner, on an assertive reform and development agenda should also be interpreted as its desire to see that the national issues like poverty, exclusion and discrimination, poor governance and corruption are mitigated. But as it rightly said such reforms cannot be carried out in the kind of atmosphere Nepal is under. Thus better sense must prevail upon Maoists and they should stop this endless violence and accept the government's offer for talks sincerely. They must heed the government's and Nepal's development partners to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

New Traffic Rule

WITH a view to protect the precious lives and limbs of all those riding pillion on motorcycles, the Valley Traffic Police, as per a news item carried by this daily the other day, will be making it mandatory for all pillion riders to wear helmets from January 1, 2003. Road accidents, albeit being unfortunate due to their deadly and life-threatening nature and effect, are some of the excruciating incidents that all people, especially the urbanites, are forced to live with. The simple reason being that despite the innumerable precautions being taken by both the concerned traffic authorities as well as by the drivers of assorted vehicles to avert accidents from ever happening, they continue to take place. And, in turn, leaving the families of the victims to either stoically bear with the loss of their loved ones killed in the accidents or, in case of severe injuries to the victims, to look after them for life, if not for many years.

As for the likely causes that lead to such unfortunate situations, one could be due to the carelessness of the drivers of assorted vehicles to, among others, strictly abide by the existing traffic rules. Especially when, for reasons best known to them alone, they simply fail to observe the mandatory precautionary rules while turning their vehicles around dangerous bends, negotiating their vehicles through congested roads or even while accelerating their vehicles on roads with speed limits. Another reason could be due to mechanical malfunctions, the most common being brake failures, flat tires and non-functioning front and back lights. Another cause of road accidents could be the adverse conditions of the roads, especially within overcrowded urban centres. For, due to the unavailability as well as the high cost of land within urban centres, almost all the roads tend to be narrow and constricted. And what seems to be further aggravating this same problem is the yearly addition of assorted vehicles, thereby endangering the lives of the vehicle drivers as well as the pedestrians. As such, if the precious lives of the vehicle drivers as well as the pedestrians were to be safeguarded, the concerned traffic authorities not only need to strictly enforce the existing traffic rules but also periodically come up with new regulations. The latest rule that makes it mandatory for all motorcycle pillion riders to wear helmets should therefore be duly commended and enforced without any let or favour.