Maina Sunuwar- the ongoing battle.

A few days ago it was reported in the Kathmandu Post that:

KATHMANDU, DEC 21 – Defence Minister Bidhya Bhandari has come out strongly in defence of Maj. Niranjan Basnet, the Nepal Army official accused of murdering Kavre-based teenager Maina Sunuwar in 2004. The United Nations Peace Keeping Mission in Chad deported Maj. Basnet two weeks ago after it discovered the serious nature of the allegation.

The UN and human rights groups want Maj. Basnet  prosecuted in a civilian court. The Army insists he has received clean chit from a Military Court of Inquiry and he can’t be tried again for the same case.

Bhandari told Maj. Basnet’s relatives on Monday “there would be no injustice” to him from the government. Basnet’s kin asked Bhandari “to defend him as he had already been acquitted” by a Military Court of Inquiry in September 2005.

Maj. Basnet has an arrest warrant in his name from Kavre District Court for his alleged involvement in Sunuwar’s murder and suspension from service. He is currently in the custody of the military police at the Army Headquarters in Kathmandu.

“The government is aware that Major Basnet has received a clean chit in the case. He followed orders of the government and his institution according to the exis-ting Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Control and Punishment) Act,” the defence minister’s Press Adviser Subash Devokta quoted Bhandari as telling Basnet’s relatives. “You need not worry about his future.”

Following repatriation, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal had directed the Army to immediately produce Basnet before a civilian court.

The Police Headquarters on Dec. 13 sent a letter to the Army demanding that he be handed over. The Army said it would decide only after it looked into reasons behind his repatriation.

On Monday, the Army constituted a three-member Military Court of Inquiry under the chairmanship of Brig. Gen. Pradeep Bahadur Singh to look into the repatriation.

“The inquiry body was formed to investigate causes behind Basnet ‘s repatriation while he was in the middle of a mission despite his acquittal by the military court in Nepal,” said Army Spokesman Brig. Ramindra Chhetri. He said “further action” on Basnet would be based on the findings of the Court of Inquiry, which

will start its work from Tuesday.

The Army says the Court of Inquiry found Army personnel Boby Khatri, Amrit Pun and Sunil Adhikari guilty in the murder of Sunuwar. Basnet, however, was found to be innocent as he had only, according

to the Court of Inquiry, arrested and handed over Sunuwar to Panchkhal barracks. “He, the enquiry concluded, was only following the commanding officer’s order,” said Spokesman Chhetri.

A few observations:

1) The military court of inquiry referred to is the same one which eventually commenced charges against three of the perpetrators of the attack. Their eventual sentence was six months imprisonment for negligence in the carrying out of orders. In other words it didn’t even recognise that an unlawful killing had taken place- it merely felt that Maina’s death was a result of negligent behaviour. On any reading of the facts Maina Sunuwar was tortured- to relegate torture to negligence is a grotesque parody of law.

2)I note that the Defence Minister points to the fact that he was only following orders. This is indeed an interesting line of defence. I only wish that the learned Minister had been present at the Nuremberg trials to advance such sterling argument. Oh, wait a minute, I remember now…I think someone might have tried that one before…I don’t think it worked.

3) The minister should take note- the Kavre District Court have issued a warrant against Major Basnet. In those circumstances proceedings are continuing against him. I do not comment (or presume to bore you)  on Nepali sub-judice rules or any of the legalities of the Minister’s decision. I do state that the Minister is quite wrong to interfere with the courts. This is a blatant attempt to invade the jurisdiction of the District Court by a member of the executive. It is profoundly unhealthy and unhelpful.

4) It is disappointing that this shows fault lines in the government on this most important issue. Such fault lines must be avoided- as soon as they provide a hiding place for those who torture they are a source of impunity. Such impunity will damage Nepal.

5) That Facebook group still exists….http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=221155176833&ref=mf

P.S.

In reference to my last post, these were clearly not my final thoughts, they are extremely important however and justified breaking the schedule.

Bandha days…

Well I’m back. Currently a tad reverse culture shocked, and jet lagged on a train up to the Lake District, but before I give any final thoughts there are one or two things to say….

My final three days in Nepal (for the time being at least) were taken up by a bandh. As well as reinforcing the points in my last post this did show up some of the best sides of Nepal.

On one day Sarah and I had decided to take a mountain flight- an opportunity to get as close to the summit of Everest as I ever want to be. We woke early, uncomfortably early in fact, and began to walk to the airport. I have always loved this type of early morning walk, the chance to see Kathmandu before she puts on her face, all huddles of strangers round kerosene stoves, waiting for that shot of oh-so-sweet tea which heralds the day. That morning they were interspersed with riot police looking, outlined by the orange flames of the stoves, like teracotta warriors waiting for battle.

There are one or two problems with that gloom though- problems which I ably demonstrated by disappearing into a large hole in the pavement midway through a particularly coherent explanation of Nepali politics (on looking back I realise that I may have also demonstrated that Sarah’s prayers can be answered).

Notwithstanding such travails we arrived at the airport safely, checked in and waited, and waited some more. I am not the world’s most patient person. I began to fidget. After some more time I obtained Sarah’s agreement to begin investigating the delay. After a short discussion the managers of Buddha Air appeared. It seemed that we were the only people who had bothered to turn up for the flight, forgetting us, they had promptly cancelled it. Nevermind though said one, grabing our boarding passes as he spoke, they’d put us on another airline’s flight- no need to recheck in, no formalities, here were the boarding passes. Marvelling at this standard of organisation (and a trifle concerned that an undetectable con was taking place) we got ready to go.

It was worth it at every level. I love mountains- I turn to them in every situation, but this was something different, to see a point close at hand and know that no ground is higher is remarkable, I felt moved and even slightly tearful.

The second thing to say is this. I have found blogging a lot more enjoyable than I expected. There is one more purely Nepali post coming- final thoughts or some such- but then this blog will not die but (in very Nepali fashion) be reincarnated as a general place for me to scattergun the various topics I’m interested in (including Nepali politics). Fortunately my Drawing Room has always contained these many interests as well, and my travels are far from over. I will be delighted by any readers and hope some you keep coming back. For now though (in truly daytime TV fashion) all I’ll say is Merry Christmas!

Dear Prachandra…

…I know, you must hate being called that. How annoying to have invested so much time and effort into reinventing yourself as a peaceful, fun loving politician, only to have your old nom-de-guerre being shouted from the gallery. And such an inflammatory name as well. Let’s face facts, if it meant ‘freedom lover’ or ‘the peaceful’ that would be one thing, but there’s no mistaking ‘the fierce one’, it is hardly redolent of friendly political discourse and peace. Trust me though, the name is the least of your worries. You have already let the mask of peaceful politics slip so far as to make your claims to the contrary seem totally laughable. What’s that wonderful Nepali expression? ‘Mukhma Ram Ram, baghalima chura’ – God in your mouth but a knife in your pocket- it could have been invented for you- and the last few weeks have shown us that knife all too clearly.

It can’t have been easy: one day you were leading a violent band of insurgents, the next you were Nepal’s first ever Maoist prime minister. “We campaign in poetry, but govern in prose” they say and it couldn’t be more true for the Maoists: your fight had all the ideological fervour and rhetoric for which the left are justifiably famous. Your government was a flat failure. The problem in my view is that once you have been a violent rebel its hard to move on to more constructive politics. To be honest your government resembled the worst kind of playground- even the reason for your leaving the government bore a close resemblance to a child throwing their toys from a pram.

So what are the problems?

1) There is no need for a political party apparently committed to democracy to have a violent youth wing. I know that you try to pretend that the Young Communist League is just like the Young Conservatives of 1980’s Britain but at the end of the day they never had martial arts training, turned up on mass at riots, beat people up, or enforced ideological protests. And (just in case it had escaped you) everyone thought they were quite weird anyway. The tragedy with the YCL is that all you are achieving by politicising the really young is ensuring a lifetime of disillusionment. It is absolutely unacceptable to create a situation in which you have instilled violent protest as a legitimate means of expression in the future of your country. You are planting very dangerous seeds.

2) It is outrageous to constantly refer to civilian supremacy and democracy and then force those who don’t agree to follow you. I have encountered genuine fear in Nepal in the last few days- the fear that unless they followed the orders of your men and shut up shop, genuine, honest and hardworking Nepalis would end up in hospital. A general strike has no legitimacy if it is only in place because of thuggery.

3) You and your party are happy to shout from the rooftops about their rights but have little respect for others- take the journalist who your cadres beat up and left to die. You have yet to apologise to her or to criticise those responsible. You have shown yourself to be both weak and morally vacuous. Dissent is healthy and should be welcomed in any political system. By crushing it you have simply damaged the fabric of Nepali political life.

4) Have you heard of the Balkans? Ethnic politics are dangerous, seriously dangerous. To employ cliche ‘fools rush in where angels fear to tread’ yet you have rushed in to the creation of ethnic autonomous states in Nepal with an astonishing disregard for the dangers. I know the history of Nepal. I understand that Nepal used to be a collection of kingdoms. I also believe that it would be mad to turn back the clock. The creation of these states will intensify ethnic rivalry. What will happen when one state sees that another is more wealthy? Before it was simply a question of location. Now it will be a point for ethnic conflict.

You are not a saviour. Your are not a visionary. In fact you are truly fierce, fierce in that you will destroy this country, fierce in that you are setting the seeds of ethnic conflict. I love Nepal, I have seen it as a kingdom and a republic, I laud you for that which you have done right (joining the peace process for instance), but in your present incarnation you are no statesman. It is statesmen which Nepal needs now more than anything.
Yours etc….

How many roads…

Traveling along a road in Nepal is not so dissimilar from the progress of most Nepali political parties, and I don’t just mean that the way is rutted, pot holed and uncomfortable (although that is certainly true). What I really mean is that the signposts are inscrutable, the traffic goes from left to right with an alarming regularity, the roads veer across the landscape switching back on themselves and crashing across other roads fairly frequently and neither the passengers nor the driver have any real sense where they are going. This was our experience yesterday as we travelled from Kathmandu to Bhaktapur, the third city (formerly kingdom) of the Kathmandu valley. In fact there were times when it was unclear whether we were on a road or had accidentally blundered onto a roller coaster (another experience we have in common with the voters of Nepal). Sarah’s advice that I should try to move my body in the same direction as the car was particularly difficult to follow; I had neither the gymnastic ability nor the anti gravity boots necessary to follow the multi-dimensional bucking of our vehicle.

Our eventual arrival in Bhaktapur (or Telos to continue stretching my political analogy to breaking point) demonstrated that those who say that ‘it’s not the destination it’s the journey’ are exactly as smug, self satisfied and inaccurate as we have all always expected. Bhaktapur is a wonderful place, less obviously commercial than Kathmandu and a whole lot more charming for that reason. It sits in the far reaches of the valley, with the terraces of the hills shelving up behind. The city was, and is, home to a flourishing community of artisans and the buildings all bear tribute to their efforts- stunning shrines to individual talent, which remain wonderfully unspoilt

We had a wonderful day getting lost in the streets of Bhaktapur and taking in this beautiful old city

We then returned for a 12 course Nepali meal- it wasn’t actually meant to be 12 courses- I ordered that number by accident- but it was delicious, even if we are still feeling quite full!

Update on Maina Sunuwar

Maina Sunuwar’s Mother holding her photograph

“How can any man be said to have a happy life when its violent termination brings to his attackers not only impunity, but the height of glory?”

As of this morning it is reported that the Nepal Army are refusing to give a date when Major Niranjan Basnet will be produced in court. It seems that the Chief of the Army, General Chatra Man Singh Gurung has gone on holiday sorry ‘important military business’ to India (where in fact he is being made an honorary general in the Indian Army) and in his absence no one knows what to do.

What has been decided is that another military court-of-inquiry will be established- this time to look into the circumstances surrounding the UN’s decision to repatriate Basnet. Interestingly this decision was taken by acting chief of the army Major General Toran Jung Bahadur Singh. He has a fairly questionable human rights record himself- he commanded the notorious tenth brigade, including the Bhairavnath battalion, during 2003-04 which had a particualrly unpleasant habit of “disappearing” those who were thought to be against the regime.

So- he can establish an entirely new court of inquiry of his own volition but he can’t comply with a direct request of the police. They wrote to the army requesting custody of Basnet but were told to wait. Major General BA Kumar Sharma (the army’s chief of legal affairs) explained that they hadn’t yet had a chance to read the letter.

So many generals…so few people to actually do the paperwork it seems.

That facebook group is still open you know….

http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=221155176833&ref=mf

Maina Sunuwar

The case of Maina Sunwar has become one of the most significant for the entire Nepali Human Rights movement. The facts, briefly, are as follows. In 2004 Maina Sunuwar, aged only 15, was at home in Kavre District near Kathmandu. Her mother was away. A group of soldiers arrived searching for her mother, when they heard of her absence they took Maina instead. She was taken to a nearby military base.

In the course of the next 1 1/2 hours she endured appalling torture. That torture included electrocution and drowning. After this she was blindfolded and left to die. The soldiers buried her in a shallow unmarked grave.

The full facts are given here: http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue/313/FromtheNepaliPress/12418

Those responsible have never received an appropriate trial or sentence. Whilst a military court did find some of the perpetrators, they received a sentence of only six months.

One of those involved, Major Niranjan Basnet,  was until recently  (by a cruel twist of irony) a leading UN Peacekeeper in Chad. On hearing the allegations against him the UN have repatriated him to Nepal. The Nepali government is trying to avoid putting him on trial. Whilst he was ‘arrested’ on his return he was placed in the custody of the Army. They have track record of ignoring the dreadful facts of this case.

For those interested a Facebook group has been established to put international pressure on the Nepali government to take action. Amnesty International have found that groups such as this can be extremely effective.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=221155176833&ref=nf

I urge you to join.

They’re changing the guard at Kathmandu Palace

Yesterday I visited the former royal palace in Kathmandu which has now been transformed into a museum. It is a very strange place. The guards (and there are a lot of them, both Army and Police) don’t seem able to make up their minds- are they just on display at a museum, or are they still guarding something?

The crowds flock in. Hundreds of Nepalis swarming around the entrance trying to find the ticket desks, all dressed in their best. The mood is neither angry not reverent, it’s simply curious.

Having been relieved of a fairly exorbitant (by Nepali standards) sum of money, and almost all my possessions- they neither allow cameras nor bags nor phones inside. I began the walk to the main door of the palace. The Rough Guide to Nepal says that this particular building is “an architectural travesty…looking like something out of Buck Rogers with echos of a Mormon tabernacle”. They are being generous. It is a ghastly structure, towering above the rest of Kathmandu like the grotesque status symbol it tried to be, all redbrick with kitsch adornments.

The steps up to the main door betray the sheer arrogance that the Nepali monarchy aspired to. Running parallel to each flight are a succession of statues representing the various incarnations of the god Vishnu- the point being that as you reach the door you also reach the latest incarnation- the king himself. Maybe I’m being churlish about this- after all a good deal of the Nepali population had every confidence in this belief but it strikes me that when a king relies for legitimacy on  the heavenly rather than temporal realm things always go wrong.

Inside the palace things are even stranger. In places it is 60’s canteen- all wood paneling, red brick and functional decor. In others it is embarrassingly over the top. Not so much a case of gilding the lily, as gilding the lily, covering it with jewels, sticking it in a silver flower pot, and planting it in a service station on the M6.

What really struck me though was the emptiness. Strange as it may sound in a building where signed photos of various heads of state jostle for position with kitsch plastic souvenirs of trips to other countries but the whole place felt desolate. It is not so much that this building is no longer lived in, it is more about the building itself. It lacked any of the warmth which I associate with Nepali homes, in fact it feels less like a Nepali home than a cheap pirated rip-off.

I left feeling quite glad that they had changed the old guard at this particular palace and with no particular appetite to return.

Another Bandh. Or so we thought…

Today was meant to be another strike. But it was cancelled. The two reasons why it was cancelled give a very good feel for modern Nepal.

Firstly Kathmandu is currently in the midst of the biggest event of the season- the Human Rights Magna Meet 2009- for three days we ‘members of the human rights community’ are having a conference in Kathmandu. The Maoists realised that preventing a human rights conference taking place would simply invite bad headlines.

The second reason, which is much more important: Astrologers have named today as the most auspicious day of the year to get married on. It seems that as fierce as Pachandra (‘the fierce one’) the leader of the Maoists is, he knows when he has met his match. The prospect of thousands of irate brides not to mention mother-in-laws turning up on his door-step was clearly too much. He did the decent thing and called off the strike. This is not to say that everyone got the message- a number of shops have closed anyway- although it is equally possible that they are all attending weddings. I passed ten on my way into work.

To revert to the Magna Meet (no, I don’t know why it’s called that either, but it sounds so Enid Blyton- I was disappointed not be greeted with lashings of ginger beer), I went along yesterday for the inauguration, in the presence of Dr. Ram Baran Yadav, the President of the nation. It was a grand affair. One after the other dignitaries stood up and made speeches. In very, very rapid Nepali. They also adopted a particular rhetorical style that made it almost impossible to understand a word they said. This style involved beginning very quietly and then gradually getting louder and louder until the squeak of feedback began to underline their main points. My ability to understand was assisted by the similarity of all the various speeches. Once I had worked out what the general theme was I was home and dry.

I’m afraid though that my favorite moment of the inauguration was not the speeches, it was the dancing. Suddenly, without much warning, the stage filled with dancers who, Bollywood style, filled the stage with colour and noise before throwing flower petals around and leaving. Then, without the slightest explanation, the speeches began again.I wondered whether this was some sort of Nepali flash mob.

I have to admit that at that point we left. It wasn’t so much that we were not enjoying ourselves, it was more that we didn’t have the faintest idea what was going on and the prospect of 3  more hours was too much to bear. It didn’t matter though, I suspect those around us just assumed we had a wedding to go to.

P.S.

Shortly after my last post I began the walk to the airport for my journey back to Kathmandu. On the way I encountered a crowd of agitators attempting to enforce the Bandh. Not having a pen and paper to hand I recorded my thoughts on my phone as I walked. Not wanting to transcribe them, I present them here in an unedited form:

Walking with the protest

Incidentally the torch symbol which I mention is actually the symbol of Madheshi Jana Adhikar Forum an extreme party, with Communist sympathies, which campaigns for the rights of those who inhabit the south of Nepal. In the circumstances (i.e. given that the killings took place in this area of Nepal) their involvement in the Bandh was inevitable.

Five minutes later

These are my first attempts at on the spot commentary and are therefore an experiment. They are not perfect, but I hope that I managed to convey some idea of the mood in the street.

Bandh…

…means strike. Today Nepal has ground to a halt. Why? Well on Friday the police in Southern Nepal began to clear a large number of squatters who had lately taken possession of government owned forest. The government claim that this land is ecologically vital- a green corridor to one of Nepal’s national parks- this is true. The squatters have little, their need is also real.

OK- a traditional clash of two real needs- why a general strike? Well, in the course of clearing the land on Friday tensions boiled over. Violence broke out, reports indicate that people died. This is dreadful, but I have two further problems.

The first is that the Maoists quite literally led the squatters to the forest. It was the Maoists who injected the ideological spark into this tinderbox. I have a great deal of sympathy for the peasantry in that part of Nepal (and I use the term peasant out of a desire to accurately describe their situation, not in a derogatory sense). I understand their need for land. I know that many still struggle with the legacy of the bonded labour and slavery which was prevalent untill the 1970s. I know that their desperation is real.

I have no respect however, for those cold-hearted ideologues who lead the desperate into a battle and let them die. I believe that what happened on Friday was inevitable. The Nepal police have no record for reliability, they have never been a well trained or well disciplined body. If anyone knows this it is the Maoists- they have been fighting them for a decade.

Let me be clear; it is dreadful that such an easy calculation can be made. The justified criticisms of the police are only strengthened by this incident. But for a political party to use the desperately poor as cannon fodder, is disgraceful cowardice and nothing more. It is ironic that many of the Maoist high command are high caste. Those they have used are not. And so in the eternal caste battle of Nepali politics, even the socialists continue the discrimination.

My second point is more of a question. Why has Nepal stopped today? Is it because of the populace’s sympathy for the struggle, or is it because of the retribution which will be extracted against those who don’t close? I’m not certain of the answer- but I know that no political party ever enjoys 100% support and I know the closure is total today.

Because I have today veered into politically charged territory I should be clear- these views are my own. They have no relation at all to the work I do or the organisation I work for. I bear the full responsibility for the accuracy and content posted here.