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In the 90’s Nepal fell victim to that most dreaded leftist political phenomena: the Maoist insurgency.  For more than a decade the countryside suffered the fate of those trapped in the crossfire.,  Maoists demanded food by night and the government punished pro-Maoist behavior by day.

Hostilities ceased between the government and the Maoists two years ago under a UN brokered cease-fire.  To everyone’s surprise, the de-militarized Maoists won elections to select a committee to rewrite the constitution.  The wildly unpopular King of Nepal seems on the verge of being deposed.  Nepal is in for some changes.

Among the Nepali people, relief is palpable.  People gladly rinse their hands of strife and happily see tourists return to all parts of the country (before they were restricted to government-controlled areas).  However, as we bike, I’m not sure how to feel.  We pass  numerous army bases on the road.  Though the firefights ended two years ago, you can practically smell the smoke in the air.  Loops and loops of razor wire defend the perimeters, stacks of sand bags and metal plates reinforce guard houses, and men, their hands stroking the barrels of mounted heavy machine guns peer out at us. 

We’ve conversed with stick-wielding members of the communist youth league.  They seemed friendly, but we also hear reports of stick-armed youth savagely beating the undeserving.  While biking past a camp of demobilized communist soldiers, I greeted a procession of well-heeled officers marching in the road.  They glared back stonily and did not reply to my “Namaste”.

Fortified snow mountains in Pokhara.

“The Maoists threatened voters with violence if they were not elected”, one shop owner told us.  Others have echoed this information, though most everyone we talk to was not personally threatened.  People we talk to can speak English and live in cities, whereas the Maoist’s domain is primarily the countryside.

It struck us as odd that the Maoists, who had started the insurgency to begin with, were rewarded for their violence with a win in the election.  Peter has expressed concern that an inherently violent organization, such as the Maoists seem to him, can only have complete hegemony as its end goal.  He remains pessimistic about the past and future elections in Nepal leading to peace.

However, most Nepali people, so glad to be done with war, have placed great hopes in the future.  They remain guarded about the Maoists themselves, but most want to see if the Maoists can follow through on promises to reduce corruption and implement a more federalized system of government.

I’m sure we can all join the Nepali people in hoping not only for peace, but for successful development.  Given the possibilities at the moment, however, possibility might well have to include more bleak options.  Let’s all hope against those, and pay close attention to Nepal, lest it wind up another lost country in strife.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 18th, 2008 at 5:00 am and is filed under Jim's Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.