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Nepal: Chaos reigns in âShangri-Laâ
EFL National Post via WorldwireYesterday, an unidentified man was killed walking on the outskirts of the capital, Katmandu, and a bomb was hurled into a bus filled with government troops in eastern Nepal. Over the weekend, 67 people were killed in day-long gun battles between guerrilla forces and government troops in western Nepal. In another incident on Monday, 11 Maoist rebels and four high school students died when government soldiers stormed a village school in northeastern Nepal, where the Maoists were holding a recruitment drive. The pace of the killing has escalated since Aug. 27, when the Maoists, who model themselves on Peruâs Shinning Path and Cambodiaâs Khmer Rouge, decided to resume their civil war after the royalist government refused to establish a special assembly to redraft the constitution. The Shining Path - sponsored by Mr Clean - is bad enough, but why would you hope to elicit popular support by patterning your organization after a group that exterminated a large portion of itâs own population.
Just like happened in Cambodia? In an era when communists of any stripe are an endangered breed, the Nepali Maoists have been steadily gaining ground. They now control much of rural Nepal and run their own mini-state in the countryâs far west. Wonder what the conditions are like in their mini-state. Must be like California. They are helped by years of corruption, misgovernment and indifference, combined with a grinding poverty that has more than 42% of all Nepalese living below the poverty line. With a military wing that claims between 10,000 and 15,000 guerrillas, the Maoists have aggressively attacked Nepalâs military, which, until recently, was both ill-equipped and performed a mainly ceremonial function. Both sides used the seven-month ceasefire to regroup and rearm. Call a cease fire, we are low on ammo and the brass is causing a trip hazard. We could get somebody hurt. Britain and the United States are supplying and training Nepalâs armed forces and the Maoists are filling their coffers through an extortion campaign that targets local businessmen, aid agencies and villagers. While nearly 8,000 people have died in the civil war in the past seven years, more than 5,100 of those deaths occurred in the past 18 months. Nepalâs notoriously complicated politics were thrown into chaos two years ago when Crown Prince Dipendra shot and killed most of his family, including his father, King Birendra, in a palace massacre before committing suicide. Fed up with the constant political bickering that produced 12 governments in 12 years and determined to have his own way, King Gyanendra dissolved Parliament in October, dismissed the elected prime minister and appointed his own government. Months of constitutional turmoil have followed, with the five major political parties joining the Maoists in agitating against the King, boycotting Parliament and demanding a return to democracy. Democracy - I thought they wanted a communist state.
Thatâs just bad marketting. They should advertise that they are the most dangerous place on earth. I thought Gaza was. Posted by: Super Hose 2003-10-16 |
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