[Reader-list] More on Nepal

[Vivek Narayanan]

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NEPAL:Escaped Daughter of Ex-Premier Says King Ruling by Terror

Ranjit Devraj 

NEW DELHI, Feb 13 (IPS) - Sujata Koirala's decision to escape
 from Nepal was made after soldiers began to harass her when her 
81-year-old father, Girija Prasad Koirala, was put under house 
arrest following King Gyanendra's seizure of power on Feb. 1. 
<br>       She then made a six-day trek overland to neighbouring 
India.

Sujata Koirala's decision to escape from the Himalayan nation of
 Nepal was made after soldiers began to harass her when her 
81-year-old father, Girija Prasad Koirala, was put under house 
arrest following King Gyanendra's seizure of power on Feb. 1. 

 The daughter of the prominent former Nepal prime minister and
 several politicians from her father's party then made a six-day 
trek overland - walking and at times riding pillion on 
motorcycles -- to neighbouring India. 

 On her way down south, Koirala saw pitched battles between the
 Maoist rebels and the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) in remote areas 
near Chitwan district, near the Nepal-India border. 

 But she said the Maoists appeared to be having the upper hand.
 ''It was scary because I could have been killed by either the 
rebels or the army.'' 

 Koirala said it was only a matter of time before the Maoists,
 who are believed to number more than 300,000 got the better of 
the RNA that was only about 78,000 strong. 

 ''How long can they (RNA soldiers) fight when they have been
 busy selling arms to the Maoists and making a business out of 
the civil war,'' she told a gathering organised by the Delhi- 
based Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union. 

 On Feb. 1 Nepal's King Gyanendra went on state-run television
 and said democracy in his country was in peril and the ''Nepali 
people's right to live peacefully'' was being threatened by a 
long-running Maoist insurgency since 1996 that has seen over 
10,500 people killed. 

 He then accused the government of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur
 Deuba of failing to conduct parliamentary elections and being 
unable to restore peace in the country. 

 Soon after the king's address, a state of emergency was
 declared and Indian news agencies reported that all telephone 
lines and mobile phone networks were shut down - effectively 
cutting the country off from the rest of the world. 

 According to reports from the Nepali capital Kathmandu some
 1,000 leaders and activists from political parties, student 
groups and trade unions had been rounded up nationwide. Royal 
Nepal Army spokesman Brigadier General Dipak Gurung said that a 
security committee under the Home Ministry would determine how 
long activists remain locked up. ''They can be detained for three 
months,'' the general said. 

 Koirala said Nepali soldiers had posed as Maoist rebels after
 the king took over and started to harass political leaders, 
including her father. 

 ''First, they came as Maoists and threatened him. The next day,
 the same people came as army people, detained my father and 
asked him to testify that I had links with Maoists,'' she said. 

 She said she feared for her father's safety. 

 ''He might be subjected to mental torture and I fear that they
 would apply slow poison to harm his life,'' she said. 

 ''I also fear that he may be killed on some pretext - so many
 people have disappeared in Nepal in the last few days and we 
hear of torture and killings coming in from towns other than 
Kathmandu,'' Koirala added alarmingly. 

 She described conditions in the Nepali capital, which she fled
 six days ago as chaotic with soldiers going from house to house 
terrorizing people and openly taking away valuables and vehicles 
and then laying the blame on Maoists. 

 ''With an information blackout, atrocities done by the RNA can
 easily be attributed to the Maoists and anything can happen to 
ordinary people with anyone daring to speak quickly silenced,'' 
she said. 

 Voicing serious concern over the ban on private radio channels
 in Nepal following the royal takeover, the World Association of 
Community Radio Broadcasters urged the new government to remove 
the ban on community radios to broadcast news and current affairs 
programmes. 

 After King Gyanendra imposed a state of emergency and swore in
 a new government, the army started to crackdown on private radio 
channels and publications - including newspapers -- in the name 
of ensuring security in the country. The FM stations were told to 
broadcast only entertainment programmes. 

 Meanwhile on Saturday, the International Confederation of Free
 Trade Unions (ICFTU) condemned the declaration of emergency in 
Nepal and appealed to King Gyanendra to initiate meaningful 
dialogue with all political parties in order to restore 
democracy. 

 The ICFTU also urged the United Nations and the International
 Labour Organisation to send a fact-finding mission to look into 
cases of violation of trade union rights and atrocities on 
workers. 

 The call for dialogue was also repeated by Indian Prime
 Minister Manmohan Singh, during a visit to the southern Indian 
city of Bangalore on Saturday. 

 Singh said India hoped the elected government and the royal
 family could co-exist without friction in Nepal. 

 ''Constitutional monarchy and multi-party democracy are twin
 pillars of Nepalese society. It is our hope that Nepal will move 
in that direction,'' Singh told reporters. 

 But Koirala said the monarchy has lost the confidence of the
 people, but was managing to survive with the help of the 
military. 

 ''The 'twin pillars' of a constitutional monarchy and
 parliamentary democracy has never really worked in the 
country,'' she said. ''It's a feudal and dictatorial regime in 
Nepal.'' . (END/2005)