Nepal's
brutal conflict between Maoist insurgents and security forces has exacted
a heavy toll on the civilian population, especially those in contested
hill districts, many of whom already live near or on the global poverty
threshold. An estimated 12,000 people have been killed since the Maoist
faction of the Communist Party of Nepal, officially launched its "people's
war" in February 1996.
A
local human rights watchdog claims that a quarter of those deaths occurred
in 2004, after an escalation in the violence following the collapse of
a ceasefire the year before.
Nepal
faced the prospect of renewed conflict in January 2006, when armed followers
of the Maoist faction of the Communist Party of Nepal ended a four-month
unilateral ceasefire. The Maoists launched their armed rebellion against
the state in 1996 and ended their latest ceasefire in response to King
Gyanendra's failure to reciprocate. Nepalis living outside the capital,
Kathmandu, remain hostage to a climate of impunity that has evolved over
the last decade. They are caught between local Maoist commanders and a
security regime that has often operated beyond the confines of the law. |
