NATIONAL7Spotlight Weekly)]

To Use Or Not To Use

Debates rage on whether army mobilization is justified to counter insurgency

By KESHAB POUDEL

After nearly a year long debate over the use of Royal Nepalese Army in containing insurgency, army has started giving a commando training to a group of police officers in Nepalgunj.

Can army mobilization alone can contain the Maoist insurgency? "No," say many but one section of the people including Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has been insisting it can.

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The latest person to join this bandwagon is Binod Bikram Sijapati, a Nepali who works in UN office in Geneva. "What is the use of army if they are not used to contain insurgency," said Sijapati in his recent interview to the weekly vernacular newspaper Deshantar (July 30, 2000).

At a time when Nepalese political leaders including Prime Minister Koirala is secretly considering the use of Army in Maoist insurgency, top army brass in Nepal has already opposed it and say use of army is not a permanent solution.

Even Indian security personnel in recent weeks expressed opinions similar to that of Nepalese army officials. Indian Chief of Army Staff, Gen. V P Malik, categorically stated that he was not in favor of army rule in Jammu and Kashmir. "The civilian authorities should desist from using army for maintaining law and order," he said recently to press. "Except during natural calamities like earthquake, floods and cyclone, the civil administration should have its own machinery set up for meeting emergencies." General V.P. Malik said (Statesman, July 23).

Lt-Gen Vijaya Oberoi, Western Command's General Officer Commanding-in-chief, has stated that the Army has been overly committed in its counter-insurgency role in Jammu and Kashmir for the last 11 years which was not good for the force. Counter-insurgency operation is a secondary role of the Army and the forces should not be overly committed to this role. Several alternatives like use of police and para-military forces are available and army should be used only as the last resort. (Statesman July 27)

Despite such observations, some noted intellectuals have pledged for the use of army against the Maoist insurgency. They justify their arguments pointing to the situation in Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland and India.

Can the solution of Northern Ireland be found through use of Army? Besides, in Sri Lanka and India, use of army has further complicated the insurgency problem.

In case of Indian state of Punjab, it was the police which successfully wiped out insurgency.

"After studying all kinds of experience throughout the world, we have recommended to set up a para-military force to fight against insurgency," said Khem Raj Regmi, former Home Secretary and convenor of the team constituted to recommend the alternatives to the police.

The recommendation of the committee was finally dropped following the protest from Nepal Police and home ministry officials. The Regmi committee recommended to set up a moderate force of para-military with defined role to use against insurgency.

After the change of government, Nepal Police is now considering to set up armed police under its own department to fight the insurgency.

A group of Nepal Police officers have already joined army training camp to receive commando training. Other group of police officers are said to be visiting training camps in India to learn the strategy to fight insurgency.