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INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE |
Homeless Shelter Despite the four-month-old
cease-fire, those wanting to go home remain wary By AKSHAY SHARMA Hare Ram Chowdhary, a 13 year old from the
southern Nepalese district of Rautahat, fled to the capital with his sister and mother
from the horrors of the "people war" in 1999 and started earning his bread by
begging on the streets. It has been a nightmare for his family, because Chowdhary's father
stayed back after arranging for the rest to flee the "war zone".
Now that the Maoists have declared a
cease-fire, Hare Ram's hopes of seeing home once again have soared. "I hope the talks
work out so we can go back home," he says. "But my family is scared because it
would be futile to go home if the hostilities resume." More than 100,000 people have been
internally displaced in Nepal in the last two years, but they remain largely unrecognized
and receive little assistance. Young people in particular have been uprooted from the
countryside either by Maoist rebels, government forces or the effects of war. Moving to
cities, with families in rural areas or migrating to India, conditions for Internally
Displaced People (IDPs) vary greatly. Displaced children in cities appear to be some of
the worst affected. The government has provided limited help. International agencies have
lately planned to assist IDP-affected areas. Particularly after November 2001, when
security deteriorated markedly in rural areas, many people fled to district headquarters,
large cities like Kathmandu and Nepalgunj, and across the border to India. By late 2002,
fighting between government forces and the Maoists affected 73 of Nepal's 75 districts. Most people displaced in the conflict are
from relatively well-off strata of the population: landlords, party workers, security
personnel, teachers and Village Development Committee chairmen, according to a 2002
USAID-commissioned study. These groups have mainly fled the Maoist rebels, who
specifically targeted them. In this way, some 3,000 teachers have been displaced from
district schools and some 700 private schools targeted by the Maoists have closed down
since 1996, according to the Department of Education. Young people have also fled forced
recruitment by the Maoist forces. Civilians have fled the actions of
government security forces in their operations against the Maoists. Although
underreported, many villagers have been displaced by food blockades, torture and killings
by security forces. Civilians have been killed on suspicion of providing food, shelter or
financial assistance to the Maoists, and often tortured by the army and police, according
to Amnesty International. Displacement caused by security forces was partly hidden during
a government-imposed state of emergency from November 2001 to August 2002. Civilians have been fleeing their villages
for fear of being caught in the crossfire in districts such as Rolpa or Lamjung or the
indirect consequences of fighting, including lack of employment or education opportunities
for young people. The conflict has led to the breakdown of education, closure of
businesses, weakening of local economies and interruption of public services. 'Internal
migration' of students from one district to another has strained schools in Dang and
Bardiya, raising teacher-student ratios to 1:70 when the national average is 1:40. The
elderly, women, children and poor villagers have been less able to flee, staying behind to
face worsening poverty, food shortages, and harassment by the Maoists and security forces. The population of 12 municipalities grew by
5.2 percent over the last two years, compared to 3.6 percent between 1991 and 2001,
according to an UNDP-RUPP survey conducted jointly by several agencies. This represents an
increase of 80,000 rural-urban migrants in the last two years, coinciding with the
intensified conflict. Little information is available on those who have sought safety in
other villages or dispersed in rural areas. Displaced people have also moved to India,
becoming internally displaced on their way to the border or - potentially at least - on
their return. Some 120,000 displaced Nepalese crossed into India during January 2003 alone
- fleeing both forced recruitment by the Maoists and army attacks, Indian Embassy
officials have said. Many young children have moved to urban or
semi-urban areas, unhygienic conditions and hostile environments, where their families can
ill-afford to send them to school. Some live on the street, denied an education and
exposed to a variety of threats. The sudden population surge to the cities
has strained basic infrastructure: roads, water supplies, sanitation and waste management,
as well as health and education. Some IDPs live with family members, but others have few
resources and no one to help them. The latter group are forced to rent small rooms with
other displaced people; some 73 percent of new arrivals lived in rented accommodation,
according to the UNDP-RUPP survey. When they find employment, these young displaced people
are generally poorly paid, partly because their own arrival has driven down wages in jobs
that require low or minimal capital investment, are physically demanding, insecure and
that generate low returns. Along with poor economic migrants, displaced people work in
factories, sell forest products or do small trading. Displaced people living with their
relatives in rural areas may also face particular hardship, overstretching their
relatives' resources where malnutrition rates are already at 20 percent. Government
assistance to war victims, including displaced people, has been very limited in Nepal. Although the government established several
compensation and resettlement funds for victims of the conflict, like the Victims of
Conflict Fund under which IDP families were entitled to an equivalent of US$1.3 per day,
most of the money was spent by July 2002. All those displaced after July 2002 were
therefore excluded from assistance and official recognition. Official assistance has only been provided
to people displaced by the Maoists, and not to those displaced by the government security
forces. Government guidelines for providing assistance to conflict victims only applies to
those affected by the actions of the Maoists. Reports prepared by the Chief District
Officers at district level do not include victims of the security forces, denying these
victims access to government support. Government assistance for displaced people,
moreover, was reportedly only accessible to those with political connections. District
Development Committee chairmen and NGO field workers said that these government funds were
accessible to well-connected politicians, bureaucrats and their clients more than to
'ordinary citizens'. Official data collection on displaced
people has tended to mask the displacement problem. Authorities have not encouraged
displaced people to come forward with their problems, and people remained reluctant to
register as displaced for fear of retaliation or being suspected as rebel sympathizers.
Moreover, government data has excluded people directly or indirectly affected by the
actions of security forces and the politicized compensation system. Furthermore, the
government has not facilitated access for humanitarian organizations. The International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been denied access to people arrested and wounded in
the conflict. It has also denied long-term visas to some 15 ICRC delegates. National and international NGOs and UN
agencies participating in a recent workshop agreed that the government has done little to
help IDPs, but suggested this was partly due to travel restrictions and lack of knowledge
of conditions in areas of origin. Aid agencies are also starting to address
the information void that has complicated assistance to displaced people. According to the
UN Development Program (UNDP), the main international and national aid agencies in Nepal
have established an Information System for Contingency Planning (ISCP) for Nepal,
described as a common information system to monitor the impact of the conflict, needs of
the population, and assistance programs. The ISCP will aim at presenting monthly updated
pictures of the situation mainly of food security, health and population displacement,
according to UNDP's study. Although fighting has subsided, the
situation on the ground has reportedly changed little with ongoing extortion by the
Maoists, recruitment and training, and conditions not yet conducive for large-scale
return. Most IDPs, like Hare Ram's family, appear to have adopted a wait-and-see attitude. IDP figures for Nepal* Total number of IDPs: 100,000-150,000 *all figures are estimates based on
available information |
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