| Journalist |
Posted
on 15-Aug-02 12:41 AM
Unfriendly fire
MOHAN MAINALI in DHADING
CENTRE FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
Find Reference: www.nepalitimes.com or www.nepalnews.com ( aug 15 issue )
Syani and Kaman Maya Praja are widows at 15.
It is a steep two-hour uphill from the Prithvi Highway to Jogimara in Dhading district. And even from a distance, we can sense the stillness in the air. The village has only older people and children, they all wear a haunted look. They sit on their front porches, with shocked listlessness.
It has been nearly six months since 17 young men from Jogimara were killed while working on an airport runway at Kalikot in western Nepal. Their families don’t have any tears left, but grief stillsears their hearts. Almost every family has lost a breadwinner, but no bodies were ever returned. There are 10 widows, 18 orphans and 14 bereaved parents at Jogimara.
Today, they are trapped between the need to come to terms with the deaths of their loved ones, a future of destitution and despair, and a government that calls them relatives of terrorists.
Gyan Bahadur and Buddhisara Biswokarma lost two sons.
In late November, just when the Maoists broke the truce and attacked the army in Dang, Jogimara’s poorest of the poor were getting ready to go to Kalikot. They went because they trusted the sub-contractor, Kumar Thapa. They knew him, he had never cheated them, and he was even willing to pay an advance. And they needed the money. Of the 20 Jogimara men who left, only three returned alive. Among the dead were nine who were under 21 years old.
“More than the cold and the hardships, we were afraid of the Maoists,” recalls Bel Bahadur BK from the original group. He returned home with two other villagers after a helicopter fired at the workers on 3 January. “We didn’t want to die out there.”
Indra Bahadur Thapa’s son told him he would be back in a few months
On 24 February, an army attack force stormed the quarters, thinking the workers were Maoists. According to eye-witness reports given to the National Human Rights Commission, 17 workers from Dhading, seven from Sindhupalchok, and 11 local villagers were killed. Among the villagers were the ward chairman from the Nepali Congress, two Sherpas from Solukhumbu who were working in Kalikot and two minors. Two workers from Sindhupalchok managed to survive. All the Maoists had fled by the time the soldiers arrived. That week, the Defence Ministry statement said 67 Maoists had been killed in encounters in Kalikot.
The fact that the Maoists shot at the helicopter using the workers as human shields bolsters the argument that the rebels were trying to trap the army into attacking civilians. But all this is of little consolation to the families, and it is clear that the attack in Kalikot was a colossal blunder. For the families of the dead in Dhading and Sindhupalchok, the wounds haven’t healed with time. This is mainly because they never got the bodies of their loved ones. No one ever came to apologise or tell them that it was a mistake. And to make matters even worse, as far as the government is concerned, their sons and fathers were all “terrorists”.
Teenage widow Mankumari Praja and her children.
Dambar Bahadur Thapa lost his 17-year-old son. He says, “They were quiet kids, they never got into any trouble, they were just working hard to make some money to send back to their families.” Gyan Bahadur Biswokarma lost two sons aged 30 and 25, and has only now decided to hold a funeral service for them. Shankha Bahadur Gurung lost two of his five sons, one 21 and the other 19. He had decided to go to Kalikot to see for himself after hearing the news, but the other villagers stopped him. Most other villagers have by now given up on their sons being alive, and are carrying out funerals on ritual pyres.
Manju Kumar Shrestha, 16, who also died
“Three weeks after the incident there were rumours that they had been killed, another three months later the contractor called us to Kathmandu and gave us their wages,” recalls Bel Bahadur. “It was then that we finally believed our son was dead.” The private contractor also gave them Rs 3,300 each for funeral expenses. The government hasn’t shown any such concern.
Fourteen-year-old Govinda Praja lost his 60-year-old father Chitra Bahadur. “I still hope my father escaped, maybe he could have been delayed because of the difficulties of coming back,” Govinda told us. “We had tried to discourage him from going so far away.” However, Chitra Bahadur, decided to go because there was no work, his debt was piling up and he had no more cattle, goats or crops to sell. Govinda’s mother Sukmaya is so torn by grief and worry that she hasn’t spoken to anyone for months. In addition to his four little borthers and sisters, Govinda now also has to take care of his mother.
Two young teenage widows, Kaman Maya Praja and Syani Praja, still have terrified looks. They are living with their joint families, unsure of what lies ahead. Indra Bahadur Thapa lost his 16-year-old son, Gyan Bahadur in Kalikot. “Before leaving he had asked us to take good care of the cattle and not to borrow too much money,” Indra Bahadur told us before looking away to wipe his tears. “He wanted earn enough to pay for his schooling.”
Sixteen-year-old Bhim Bahadur Thapa, who died in Kalikot.
It was only after the news of the death of innocents rocked parliament in March that Singha Darbar took notice. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba told parliament on 6 March that the government was taking care to ensure that the innocent were not killed, and that if that happened, they would be adequately compensated. The Prime Minister’s Office also set up a special committee headed by Rishikesh Gautam to hear and investigate complaints. When we contacted the committee for comment, its members were still unaware of the men from Jogimara who were killed in Kalikot.
Shocking as the tragedy is, what is even more appalling for the families in Jogimara is the government’s indifference to their plight. As we prepared to leave, one villager told us: “We’ve not just lost our children, but the government has branded them terrorists. Where is justice?”
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| NK |
Posted
on 16-Aug-02 08:35 AM
Indra Bahadur Thapa’s son told him he would be back in a few months
On 24 February, an army attack force stormed the quarters, thinking the workers were Maoists. According to eye-witness reports given to the National Human Rights Commission, 17 workers from Dhading, seven from Sindhupalchok, and 11 local villagers were killed. Among the villagers were the ward chairman from the Nepali Congress, two Sherpas from Solukhumbu who were working in Kalikot and two minors. Two workers from Sindhupalchok managed to survive. All the Maoists had fled by the time the soldiers arrived.
*That week, the Defence Ministry statement said 67 Maoists had been killed in encounters in Kalikot. *
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This happens so often as was reported in NY Times some two months ago. As reporters are not allowed to go and verify the govenment's report, we swallow or pretend to swallow what they force feed us.
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