A Voice For the Voiceless

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The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Bulletin #5: Update from the Nepal Democracy Desk

(On February 5, 2005, dozens of pro-democracy activists in Kathmandu started circulating the following e-update to inform the world about the crisis in Nepal following the imposition of military rule by King Gyanendra on February 1, 2005.)

1. Human rights organizations and professional associations announce protests program

After issuing a series of statements denouncing the king's coup and demanding restoration of the democratic process over the past week, human rights organizations and professional associations decided yesterday that that they will organize a protest demonstration at 1:00 p.m., Thursday, 10 February, at Putali Sadak. Kathmandu.

The participants of the protest will carry black banners without any slogans to symbolize the complete blackout Nepali democracy and human rights in the country. The meeting was convened by the prominent human rights activist, Krishna Pahadi of Human Rights and Peace Society (HURPES).

The participants included representatives of the Nepal Teachers Union, Progressive Writers Association, South Asia Free Media Association, Amnesty International Nepal Chapter, Civic Solidarity for Peace, Collective Campaign for Peace (COCAP), IHRICON, Jagaran Nepal, Alliance for Human Rights and Social Justice, Human Development and Peace Campaign, Mahila Adaharshila and others. The meeting was held amidst a heavy presence of nationl and international media.

2. Security forces restrict the movement of human rights commissioner; continue their "visits" to human rights organizations

Prof. Kapil Shrestha, Commissioner of the Nepal Human Rights Commission (NHRC) was stopped by a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) at the Tribhuwan domestic airport on 7 February 2005 and sent back home.

As a Human Rights Commissioner, he was scheduled to fly to the eastern town of Biratnagar where the diplomatic and donor agencies, including the NHRC officials, plan to attend the inauguration ceremony of the newly-opened Regional Branch Office of the NHRC. Prof. Shrestha called up our team and said that the DSP said, "Sorry sir, there are orders from higher up that we should not let any human rights leader leave Kathmandu. You know sir, its for your own security. I'm sure, you understand the situation".

About five men in civil clothes who identified themselves as policemen "visited" the human rights and peace network, COCAP's office early morning of 8th February asking for the whereabouts of its coordinator. This is the third time since 4th February that the security personnel have "visited" COCAP office asking the whereabouts of the COCAP coordinator.

3. Pro-democracy student unions held underground meetings

From Saturday onwards, the pro-democracy student unions, including the Nepal Student Unions affiliated to the Nepali Congress and Nepali Congress (Democratic) as well as ANNFSU and ANNFSU (United), affiliated to CPN (UML) and Jan Morcha Nepal respectively have held series of underground meetings to plan pro-democracy, anti-monarchy movement. They have also been holding joint meetings to coordinate plans for the movement.

4. Political weekly magazines closed down, some defy the royal order

Due to threats from the king and the military, popular political weeklies including Drishti, Budhabar, Bishwodeep, Suryodaya, etc were not published over the past week. Samay, a weekly newsmagazine, was published on Sunday instead of its regular publication day of Friday. It was critical of the royal move, and the editor, the well-known journalist Yuvaraj Ghimire, is reported to have gone underground after the publication.

Sanghu, the political weekly close to the CPN (UML) published daring news on 7 February 2005. The main news was titled, "UML Underground: An Emergency Meeting of 54 Central Committee Members; The King and the Political Parties have Parted Ways".

It has reported that the parties have started reorganizing themselves to launch a movement, to be operated from the underground as well as over ground. It has also given the details of the change of responsibilities within the UML party structure for effective organization of movement for restoration of democracy.

One title asks the question, "What about the Property of the Ten Ministers?" referring to the non-compliance by the new ministers under the king to the tradition of the newly appointed ministers to make public their property details immediately after being sworn in to the post.

The news item has made fun of the rhetoric by the king of his anti-corruption drive by pointing out the past corruption scandals of almost every one of the newly appointed ministers.

Sanghu has reported that the charismatic pro-democracy student leaders including Gagan Thapa, Khim Lal Bhattarai and Ram Kumari Jhankri managed to go underground and are reorganizing their intra- and inter organization structures and strategies to launch a movement for a republican democracy.

Sanghu has also published the translated versions of the statements issued by the international community, including by India, the US, UK, and the UN disapproving of the royal takeover. It has also given the list of leaders arrested and put under house arrest. It has left the editorial space blank as a symbol of protest.

Some of the popular political weeklies have adopted the strategy of publishing their papers clandestinely followed by the editors and publishers going underground. Meanwhile, Jan Aastha weekly, known to have informed and extensive sources within the royal palace and the military establishment has continued to be under strict military surveillance.

5. Reports of about 1000 journalists working for FM radio stations being laid off

The Kathmandu Post and Kantipur dailies have reported that FM radio stations around the country are laying off about 1000 reporters, as consequence of the draconian media censorship by the king.

6. Differences of opinion within the army top brass?

There were unconfirmed rumours that the army top brass has divided opinion on the strategic advantage of the royal takeover and the military coup.

7. More names of those arrested from outside Kathmandu start getting known

As phones start operating again, names of more political leaders and civil society leaders arrested from outside Kathmandu have started surfacing. The army has detained Ramakanta Sapkota, Devi Gyawali, Bal Krishna Poudel and Ram Singh Bishowkarma, from Chitwan from a protest rally organized by CPN (UML) activists immediately after the royal coup.

The Nepali Congress affiliated youth wing Tarun Dal also organized a surprise protest rally in Chitwan, but none of the demonstrators could be arrested. Khem Bhandari, the editor of a local daily Abhiyan Dainik, was arrested Saturday by the military after he published a critical article denouncing the king's coup. He has later released but has to report regularly to the military barrack.

There are reports of arrests of the coordinator of a civil society network and two human rights lawyers in Surkhet. Their names need to be confirmed.

8. Pro-democracy protests continue in India

The Nepal Democracy Desk in Delhi has informed us that a series of pro-democracy protests have taken place in India and more are planned. On 7 February, activists of the Indian political party Janta Dal demonstrated in Delhi protesting the military coup by the king. Over the last two days, the Indian journalists have been protesting in front of the Nepal Embassy in Delhi against the king's coup.

Two talk programs were organized at the Jawaharlal Nehru University on Nepal's situation, with heavy attendance of intellectuals , political activists and Nepal experts including Prof. S.D. Muni, Major General (rtd) Ashok Mehta, and Prof. Lok Raj Baral. Our Delhi Desk team members were also present.

They have formulated a lobby document to be used with the major political parties in India. Our Delhi Desk members are holding a series of meetings with Indian Political Party members, senior journalists, social activists and university students in Delhi to generate support for the pro-democracy movement in Nepal.

The Indian Nepali organizations affiliated to Nepali Congress organized a protest rally in Delhi yesterday. Another one affiliated to the CPN (UML) has been organizing such rallies in other parts of India. Indian Nepali organizations affiliated to Nepali Congress, CPN (UML) and Jan Morcha Nepal have started a joint meeting to work out joint strategy to support the pro-democracy movement in Nepal.

A joint meeting of the major Indian political parties is scheduled for 24 February to discuss how they can provide support for pro-democracy movement in Nepal.

9. King reportedly has not met any diplomat after 1 February

King Gyanendra reportedly has not met any diplomat after his military coup on 1 February 2005. It is understood that the diplomats have been expressing their disapproval of the king's coup during meetings with Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey.

The diplomatic community in Nepal have reportedly registered formal complaints with the Nepal government for transgressing international laws related to diplomatic rights. The Embassies and the UN agencies were deprived of communication facilities including phone, fax, e-mail and internet services.

Only several, not all, embassies, diplomatic missions and the UN agencies had satellite phones. There were also reports of the RNA confiscating the satellite phones of the diplomatic, donor and the UN agency branch offices in the district. Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Louis Arbour has written another very strong letter to the king disapproving of his takeover and derailment of the democratic process.

10. Annex: A recent article by a senior Indian journalist, the Delhi Editor of The Telegraph

For a Hammer, Every Problem is a Nail

Bharat Bhushan, The Telegraph

Gareth Evans could have been a loveable aging hippy. But this longest-serving former foreign minister of Australia is the president of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. He had first gone to Nepal as a back-packer in his youth.

Anyone who claims to have a clear solution to the Nepal crisis is either ignorant or has had too much to smoke much like me when I first landed in Kathmandu, he said to some friends after returning from Nepal recently. King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, however, thinks that he has a clear solution executive monarchy.

Nepalese kings are known to be pot-heads. The monarch who spent his short tenure in a coma, King Dipendra, allegedly massacred his family under the influence of a deadly overdose of Famous Grouse whiskey, ganja and charas. His father, King Birendra, apparently enjoyed a joint only occasionally. King Gyanendra, however, is not known to be a pot-head. He seems in full control of his faculties.

King Gyanendra is putting in place what an unusually thoughtful Nepalese commentator, C.K. Lal, describes as a post-modern monarch.. King Mahendra and his grandson, Birendra, although ambivalent towards democracy, tried to function with written constitutions. Theirs was a modern monarchy. In his attempt to run Nepal as a corporation, with himself as a hereditary CEO, Gyanendra is ushering in a new phase.

Lal says that postmodern authoritarianism is different from its earlier avatars in that all modern institutions, like the press, and the legal system, seemingly stay in place. Yet the writ of only the man at the top runs as in the case of Fujimori’s Peru or Chavez’s Venezuela.

Nepal’s postmodern monarchy has become possible because the climate was right, domestically and internationally. Terrorism created a political space for authoritarianism. Conservative political ideas suddenly become kosher. Witness what happened to the American society and electorate after 9/11.

Even General Pervez Musharraf’s military coup went on to be legitimized after the war on terror. In the wake of the attack on Indian parliament on December 13, 2001, a draconian law like the Prevention of Terrorism Act was passed by parliament.

These momentous international developments inspired King Gyanendra to project himself as a champion of the war on terror and symbol of stability. He was also helped in his ambition by the internal political situation in Nepal. The parliamentary parties were badly divided and their internecine differences, fuelled by extreme egotism, had become irreconcilable.

The Maoist left had mounted a challenge that the parties were unable to meet. Both the parliamentary parties and the extreme left were reduced to appealing to the monarchy as the residual source of power.

There can be little doubt that sooner rather than later the mobile phone network and internet will be switched on in the Himalayan Kingdom in the information age such channels cannot remain blocked for long or they clog up the economy. The press and the judiciary will also start functioning in a manner of speaking. The king’s cabinet will be justified on the basis of merit and technocratic talent. The king will announce some more populist policies. The structure of power will seem almost normal.

Foreign dignitaries, including from India, which suffers from terrible blindness in its neighborhood, will start making exploratory forays into Nepal and genuflecting before the king. Gyanendra himself will profess eternal friendship and talk of strengthening traditional ties with India. And soon pompous voices will emerge from the gin-drinking foreign policy pundits emphasizing order over participatory democracy in backward societies.

Indian television channels will aid this process of normalization with their monstrous appetite for drivel. They will report that everything was normal in Kathmandu with visuals from Thamel. King Gyanendra may well then muse to himself and ask: Who is the pot-head now?

However, this would not mean the end of civil war in Nepal. In all probability, the disintegration of the political parties will be stemmed; the students’ organizations will get radicalized and may go with the Maoists; and the political parties will be increasingly inclined to join hands with the Maoists against the monarchy. This People vs. the Palace republican movement will spell the end of the Shah dynasty.

King Gyanendra’s takeover may seem a negative development. In the long run, however, it is likely to have far-reaching positive consequences. If the political parties and the Maoists come to a common minimum understanding, together they can initiate a radical transformation of Nepalese society through democratic reforms.

Why is this a probable scenario? Because the monarchy has chosen to go against the tide. In the last one and half decades, beginning with the coming in of multi-party democracy in 1990, Nepal has become an intensely political society. One should not forget that a majority of the Maoist cadre is in the 12 to 22 years age-group.

The Maoist movement’s influence is the highest in the mid- western Himalayan districts that are not the poorest there are poorer areas to the far west. Nor is illiteracy the highest in this area. Nepal in fact is emerging as a left-wing society by choice. Of the 40 demands that the Maoists put forward initially, the mainstream political parties supported 36. Now they will have one more common ground with the Maoists republicanism. Whatever political consolidation takes place now, therefore, is unlikely to be in favor of the centrist parties or the monarchy.

The decisiveness of this shift will be determined by the extent to which King Gyanendra can rally people behind the slogan of Nepalese nationalism being in danger. The monarchist panchayat system introduced by his father after subverting democracy was based precisely on this doctrine.

But today’s Nepal is different. Over the last four decades, people’s aspirations have become more consumerist, empty slogans will not satisfy them. More importantly, after the dismissal of multi-party democracy in October 2002, the failure of King Gyanendra’s rule by proxy has been all too evident. It makes no sense for people to endorse his failure.

The most important catalyst in the emerging situation will be India’s reaction. The Western countries will take their cue from New Delhi. India’s desire to patch up with the authoritarian regime of Gyanendra will be constrained by its self-image in this age of democracy and human rights.

India is the largest democracy in the world and wants a permanent seat in the UN security council. For two and a half years, it talked of supporting the twin pillars of multi-party democracy and constitutional monarchy in Nepal, but King Gyanendra has demolished them single-handedly. Can New Delhi now afford to put history in the reverse-gear in its own backyard?

It is reasonable to assume that India will find it difficult to take a public posture in favor of an absolutist monarchy even if it supports the crushing of the Maoists by the military. If, however, India legitimizes the king, the liberal democracies of the European Union, especially Sweden, Norway and Germany, who have been looking for a foothold in Nepal, will harvest the local sympathy for democracy.

The Americans are already there. If this is what India wants as an emerging power, this is what it will get.

INSN is the International Nepal Solidarity Network, which has activists in over a dozen countries around the world who are working to bring democracy to Nepal. Visit their website for regular updates related to the Nepal crisis.