| Username |
Post |
| Biswo |
Posted
on 19-Mar-04 04:40 PM
'NID Inspector Bharat Khadka was shot dead in Chitwan.' - Today's news.
After reading the news, I tried to figure out if I knew the man. It seemed like I knew so many people whose first name was Bharat. I also knew so many people whose second name was Khadka. May be one of the combinations would turn out to be the victim.
War is so cruel. When it was going on in Rukum, I didn't care. When the Maoists killed Yadu Gautam, I didn't feel urgency. When Nepal Police mass raped/killed people during Kilosheraa operation, I wasn't affected. I remember talking to a friend of mine, Raju Adhikari, four years ago:
"Raju, didn't you say you were from Haapur, Dang?"
"yea."
"There is a news from somewhere in Dang. Maoists killing people there, dude."
I was young then, and so was Raju. He was embarrassed to acknowledge that his district was turning into Zaire. For me, it was his problem. He was in 'deep shit'. Not me.
This time,however, it is going on in Chitwan. One of my classmates was killed months ago in a crossfire. One of my villagers was killed in a bank looting/police post attack a few months ago. They were both innocent, bystanders: collateral damages to use the martial term. Now, Maoists have declared the 'blockade' and the whole Chitwan is affected: poultry farmers losing money, vegetables rotten in farms, schools closed and my extremely brilliant niece is staying home rather than going to school, and so are other promising young students. Poor people don't have work to do, and the day they run out of food, the only recourse for them is to loot the riches of wealthier people.
Maoists are animals. Cruel animals. They don't know what they are doing. They are sadists who revel in the pain inflicted upon others.
---
Two of my neighbors were arrested from their home by security forces.
Arrests by security forces is, in fact, an art. It seems to us they do it randomly. It is not. A great mind works to conduct this, as Solzhenitsyn said. They decide where to arrest. Who to arrest. How to arrest: in the night or in the day. If in the night, whether to check his/her house for evidences. If such evidences are sought, other neighbors are also asked to look at the searches, though military doesn't care about such witnesses. If there is going to be no case in the court, what are the uses of evidences-searching? Police used to do that.
The man was an innocent teacher. His wife a clueless housewife. But it is the innocents who don't run away. Even if someone tells them they are being arrested, they don't run away. They think it is probably the mistake. 'Me, what for?' they would bleat: exactly the way Solzhenitsyn once said. The innocents think that they will be released once the 'arresters' realise that it was the mistake. Afterall, all who are arresting people are human. They definitely don't want innocents to suffer. So, when the security forces come knocking the door in the midnight, they open the door. They don't put up resistance. They don't run away. They don't want to make matter worse by running away. They ask if they can carry the cloth. The security forces, on the other hand, say,"no, no cloths are required." If the person is going to be shot to death on their way in a riverbank, or if the person is going to be interrogated in a cold floor, what good are the clothes?
Then the men vanish. The villagers wonder. They don't know the people who arrested their neighbor. They whisper. The whisper reaches to Kantipur. A plea is published. Another plea is published by Amnesty International in London. Army headquarter denies or doesn't even respond. The interrogators don't read the newspaper. Trained to kill people mercilessly, they ask questions, and then beat people. To tell them one is innocent is to provoke them.
Never in our history was there only one body that arrested a person, interrogated a person, and decided about his culpability. Let us hope those who are arrested will survive to tell their pain to the rest of us.
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| noname |
Posted
on 19-Mar-04 05:31 PM
Biswo, vivid narration!
I noticed in some other thread that you are reading Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag. Although you might have already noticed it, just want to mention here that there is one more recent book about The Gulag by Anne Applebaum. Although I have not read the book, it got very positive review from many including NYT.
Here is one anecdote about the Gulag mentioned by one reviewer in the INSIGHT (?).
"It was in the far east of Siberia that the Gulag had its first and only visit from an American Politician. Vice President Henry Wallace made the trip to Kolyma in May 1944, representing President Roosevelt and the US. The pro-Soviet and naïve Wallace, says Applebaum, "never even knew that he was visiting a prison." He thought the men and women he met were free laborers. Many he came into contact with had been warned not to mention they were prisoners on pain of being charge with treason."
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 19-Mar-04 07:18 PM
Yes, noname. Anne's book was also reviewed in New Yorker. I haven't read that, hopefully will someday. They say it is one of the best books about such confinement to come out after solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago.
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| M.P. |
Posted
on 19-Mar-04 10:29 PM
To tell the truth, I think I have reached the saturation point. I don't feel like taking the name of the "security" forces (damn I just did) and this Panche government. Number wise, Nepalis have suffered more in the hands of the "security" forces than the Maoists. I feel sad for low-rank army men who have no links and get transferred to rural parts only to get into ambushes. Gurung Karsaap thinks he is above the law.
I have never thought of the Maoists as someone who care about Nepal, but if my perception is wrong and if they do care about Nepalis, the next step they should take is to attack Chhauni barrack, Narayanhity and Simhadurbar. I am very surprised that this king, who, during felicitation, preaches his ideology of nationalism and shit, cares so much about his power and at a time the country is collapsing, he is busy with his own prachar-prasar. Kati gaali garni?
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| babaal |
Posted
on 19-Mar-04 10:44 PM
M.P., aba firefighters like you huda hudai maobadi haru le narayanhity ko ke bigarna sakthe ra?
;)
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| keshuvko |
Posted
on 19-Mar-04 11:02 PM
I regard your feeling!
But your interpretation may be somewhere wrong......................!
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 20-Mar-04 12:24 PM
MP:
I support your anger against the state.
To our pleasant surprise, however, it seems Swiss government has motioned a proposition in UN Convention for human right to censure the government and the Maoists. Also, awareness in Nepal is at least taking off. Did you read a big headline in Nepali Times this week? It says 'Bepattaa.' The article is not a very significant,but let's hope it is the start. The journalists in Nepal really needs to make it a movement. Too many people are crying in countrysides these days in a milieu of uncertainty over the disappearance of their loved ones.
To pluck a person in the midnight from a house, and claim he was never arrested is such a crime. It is so saddening, frightening, excruciating to those who are left behind in their homes. Should we take food to him in the jail? They think. They go to Bharatpur the next day. The police would reply: 'no he is not here. Go to barrack.' They go to barrack. They can't even go near the door. The guard would say 'no he is not here'. The search ends there. The breadwinner has disappeared by this time leaving his family in shock. It is such a crime. It is even more so, because it can be prevented if only the king wanted it. Someone said long ago, Birendra told a NC leader in 2046,' I don't want to see Nepali killing each other. So let's talk.' Gyanendra, on the other hand, is our dracula king. Loves the blood.
Our constitution calls for producing a man in 24 hours after arresting him. It also separates the body that punishes(or exonerates) a defendant(court) from the body that prosecutes him(police). When Gyanendra says he is following the constitution, and similarly when Prachanda says he is for human right, I really wish someone would spit at their face. Btw, I think Prachanda did one thing right after attacking Bhojpur. I couldn't believe his men let those 8 police/army men go. In the past, I thought they were playing this number game. How many army were killed versus how many Maoists killed? Now, at least, it seems they realised killing the army men wouldn't serve any purpose. Or did they?And would RNA reciprocate?
Btw, if you are looking for change in your life, why not apply for internship with Amnesty International in DC this summer? In the past, I read about their work in Latin America and other countries on behalf of those disappeared by state. I like this organization. I also contribute to them a paltry sum whenever I can as a membership fee.
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