Mother's hope against all odds

By Our Correspondent

BARDIYA, Sept. 20: Every day Chiliya Chaudhary of Rajpur Village Development Committee of Dang, in mid-western Nepal, sits on the banks of the Rapti River waiting for her two teenage sons to return home. This has become her daily routine since the last five months.

Five months ago, she remembers, her two sons Dipesh, 18, and Chukun, 15, had left home with four unidentified persons who had come to pick them up. The sons had left with some beaten rice and five packets of noodles. The men had told her that jobs were waiting for the two boys.

The same night, on April 12, there was a big fight after the Maoists attacked the army and police posts at Lamahi and Satbariya in nearby Deukhuri where 47 security men were killed. The actual number of casualties from the Maoist side was never known.

After her sons did not return for months, Chiliya began looking for them. She went to all her relatives and acquaintances and other possible places. She even checked with the police, but to no avail.
She dreads her sons might have been killed in the bloody battle in Deukhuri. But her heart refuses to admit that her naïve and innocent sons would ever follow the path of the Maoists.

"We will return soon," they had said. The mother still believes her sons have gone to look for work and will come back. "They will certainly return by Dashain." The hope has not died down.

It is not only Chiliya, but many other parents in Satbariya, Rajpur, Bela, Gathawa, Ganga Paraspur and Gobardiha VDCs who are waiting for their children.

The Maoists had forcefully taken the children in the morning of April 12, and it is believed they were used as human shield in the attacks.

Shomu Chaudhary of Bela VDC is convinced that his daughter was killed in the incident. She was also taken by the Maoists in the morning of April 12. "They had said that they would find her a job." Although, most parents have little hope of seeing their sons and daughters again, they are unwilling to believe that their children were killed in the attack. "Because our sons and daughters were not Maoists," they say. "But we allowed the Maoists to take our children with them for fear of the consequence."

The Maoists had given them many assurances and false promises. The people want the Maoists to return their children, and the Maoists continue to make false pretences that the children will be returned soon.

The six VDCs to the south of the Deukhuri valley are inaccessible by road, making it easy for the Maoists to still force the locals into terrorist activities.

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