NATIONAL 1 (Spotlight Weekly)]

Righting The Wrongs

As Nepal's international image gets blurred the government must act now to seize the available opportunity to clear the picture

By A CORRESPONDENT

Last week, Nepal hit headlines in international media. But it was not because of Everest or the Gurkha soldiers, nor, for that matter, for the country's Shangri-la image.

It was all for the wrong reason. First came the report of the London-based international human rights organisation, the Amnesty International. Then, followed the report by a senior UN Human Rights official.

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Both reports did put Nepal in a bad light on human rights front. The Amnesty International went to the extent of warning of human rights disaster. The London-based Nobel Prize winning body feared that Nepal may be heading towards the Kashmir, Karachi and Sri Lanka way.

The visiting UN Special Rapporteur, Asma Jahangir, was equally concerned over "deteriorating" human rights situation.

At the crux of these concerns is the on-going Maoist insurgency which has claimed nearly 1200 lives. Hundreds of others have been kidnapped, wounded, amputed and rendered disabled. Dozens of others have disappeared in police custody while many others have been cruelly victimised by the communists.

As the Amnesty International and the UN official said, the fault lies on both sides — the government and the Maoists, though the degree could differ. So, the responsibility of restoring normalcy also falls on both sides.

Is there, then, any room to hope that wise sense will prevail on the government and the rebels? It is not yet clear. But there are indications that pressures at home and from abroad like that from the human rights groups may yield results.

After four years of practically doing nothing except mobilising the police to tackle the Maoist problem the government and the ruling party appear to mean business, going by the series of meetings the Deuba committee has held with a cross section of political parties and by the resolve demonstrated by the Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala.

And, if one were to read between the lines, positive signs can be seen on the rebels' front also.

Less than two weeks after "acknowledging" -- for the first time -- the achievement of the 1990 people's movement, the Maoist leader, Prachanda, has come out with another statement which is the mildest ever.

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In a statement to mark the fourth anniversary of the insurgency, Prachanda, has said that he has no objection to talks with the government. Though he has said that the talks can be held only "under a minimum atmosphere", Prachanda has meaningfully not spelt it out.

Earlier, the Maoists used to put some conditions like halt to the police operation, release of all arrested comrades, information on the allegedly disappeared comrades etc. But this time Prachanda has not even repeated these demands. What he has done, instead, is to repeat the phrase "under a minimum atmosphere."

It is also no less important to note that Prachanda has thanked all those including the human rights activists for taking initiative to mediate for talks with the government.

These important developments have taken place at a time when the government and the ruling party have appeared -- for the first time in four years -- serious in tackling the problem.

One would be tempted to assume that the Maoists are reciprocating the government's gesture, though the reason for doing so could be internal compulsion also. But the point is: the government has also compulsion, especially in the face of the loss of its international image on human rights front.

So, notwithstanding the revolutionary rhetoric's of the rebels, the government must at any cost seize the opportunity to bring the rebels to the negotiating table. It must hit the iron while it is hot.