| dautari |
Posted
on 17-Dec-03 05:18 PM
Report says Nepal may become another Bangladesh for India
Sudeshna Sarkar (IANS)
Kathmandu, December 16
Nepal's seven-year-old Maoist insurgency will cost the country billions of rupees and create, if it goes on and on, an immense migration problem for India, a report has warned.
"The Costs of War in Nepal", a report compiled by an NGO, National Peace
Campaign, says if the insurgency continues, it will fan forced displacement
with the number of Nepalese seeking shelter and employment in India escalating.
India shares an open border with Nepal and, with the law of the land enabling the Nepalese to stay in the subcontinent without visa, work without a permit and buy property, the exodus to India has shot up in the past seven years.
A large number of Nepalese girls are also trafficked to the red light areas of India, especially to Mumbai, every month.
If the insurgency continues, trafficking from the hills would increase to "alarming rates", the report warned.
The Nepalese living in the midwest are especially vulnerable, being caught between the Maoists and the security forces.
"Threats to life have been so high that thousands of youths have left villages seeking passports to the Gulf countries. Those who can't afford to earn or bribe a visa, catch a bus for the Indian capital of Delhi or for some other Indian destinations," the report said.
It went on to add that records at a border crossing in Kachanpur district in western Nepal showed that "in the 30 days, between December 14, 2002, and January 14, 2003, 40,000 Nepalis crossed into India".
Across the border at Banbasa in India, the border police post recorded more than 10,000 Nepalese going over to India between mid-September 2002 and mid-January 2003.
In January 2003 alone, it said according to figures indicated by Indian Embassy officials in Kathmandu, roughly 120,000 displaced persons had crossed over into India.
The high-intensity violence, targeting infrastructure, had caused business confidence to plummet, it said.
The report, coming on the heels of the Maoists demanding "special tax" from the Indian ventures Dabur Nepal and Surya Nepal, a joint venture of ITC,
said the insurgents have been targeting Indian joint ventures.
"The Maoist rebels have bombed almost all the major joint ventures in Nepal - Surya Nepal, Nepal Lever Ltd, Dabur Nepal, Colgate Palmolive, Nepal
Bottlers (producers of Coca Cola in Nepal) and Nepal Battery," it said.
"Some of these joint ventures have experienced closure a number of times due
to Maoist threats. Others have scaled down their production and postponed --
if not cancelled -- their business expansion plans," it added.
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