May
2005
Nepal
rebels admit leaders rift |
Maoist
rebels in Nepal, who have been fighting for a communist republic for the
past 10 years, have admitted to a rift in their ranks.
Rebel
leader Prachanda has said that he had serious differences with Baburam
Bhattarai, the second most powerful person in the rebel movement.
Nepal's
state-owned media had reported recently that Mr Bhattarai and his wife,
Hisila Yami, had been expelled. The rebels have denied the reports, and
ruled out a split in the party. But in an e-mail statement, Prachanda has
listed a number of serious differences with Mr Bhattarai. He also appeared
to confirm that Mr Bhattarai had been stripped of key positions he held
in the party.
April
2005
Trekking
in the time of terrorism |
Until
two years ago, the trail from Terathum to Milke Danda and Jaljale Himal
in the rhododendron season would be one long line of trekkers and porters.
This
year, the mountains are ablaze again with Nepal's national flower. The
trees are sagging a bit under the weight of late spring snow here in eastern
Nepal and it's not just red, there are blossoms of every shade from pure
white to deep red. But there are few trekkers here to enjoy the sight.
This
is also the route to Kangchenjunga Base Camp via Taplejung and where rafters
used to come to raft down the Tamur and Arun. But this spring there has
been only a sprinkling of mountaineers headed up the mountains.
April
2005
 |
A
TIME special report on the bloody civil war that is tearing the Himalayan
kingdom apart .
With
... Photo Essay: Rebel Territory and Interview with the Maoist leader
Prachanda |
 |
A
distant clattering bounces off the snowy hills as 20 Maoist guerrillas
approach a mountain pass deep in Nepal's rebel territory. The sound is
too faint to fix as gunfire, so the guerrillas press on up the goat track.
Then come the explosions.
The
rebels halt and, panting in the thin air, squint up at the forest ridge
that now marks the edge of the newest battlefield in their war. "Mortars,"
says a Maoist political officer. "Eighty-one millimeters," replies a teenage
girl who has led the four-hour ascent from the valley floor. "And a chopper."
Minutes later, a helicopter marked with the scarlet emblem of the Royal
Nepalese Army (R.N.A.) skims the trees above the Maoists. They scatter,
crouching as it flies off without spotting them. For now, the danger has
passed, but the rebels later claim that the helicopter was on its way back
from the village of Kharikot where it had killed scores of unarmed people
as they celebrated the ninth anniversary of the Maoist rebellion. The R.N.A.
insists the strike was legitimate, boasting that it surprised a group of
800 armed fighters, of whom 25 were killed.
April
2005
Mystery
of the missing Baburam Bhattarai |
Kathmandu,
April 13
"Dr Baburam Bhattarai cleared the design of this building,"the
taxi driver pointed to the showpiece Birendra International Conference
Centre. Not true - it was designed and gifted by China.
"Dr
Baburam Bhattarai designed the Rashtriya Banijya Bank, opposite Singha
Durbar, in such a way that every room gets natural sunlight,"he went on.
True, some say. Bhattarai did study architecture at Chandigarh and Delhi.
"He
was such a good architect that the Americans offered him 1 lakh dollars
to work for them but he refused,"the taxi driver went on. Can't be verified.
So
what does Baburam Bhattarai do these days? "Woh Maobadi ka raja hai (he
is the king of the Maoists),"he explained.
However,
there are strong rumours in Kathmandu that the raja of Maobadi may have
been placed under arrest by his own comrade and leader Prachanda, also
known as Pushpakamal Dahal.
The
first indication of trouble in the Maoist leadership came in March when
the Royal Nepal Army claimed that Bhattarai and his wife Hisila Yami had
been thrown out of the party.
However,
through a public statement the Maoists clarified that both were still in
the party.
April
2005
Travelling
across Terathum is now like going to Rukum |
Across
the green hills of eastern Nepal, with its scented forests and grand vistas,
travelers are lulled into dreaming that peace has returned to this land.
But the numerous checkpoints along the way, the charred hulks of burnt
vans and tree trunks by the side of the road prove that even here the conflict
is never very far away.
For
the first six years of the conflict, eastern Nepal was largely unaffected.
But the violence creeped in stealthily like a dangerous unseen epidemic.
By 2003, the hinterlands of Khotang, Terathum, Sankhuwa Sabha, Bhojpur,
Taplejung and Panchthar were reeling under Maoist tactics of murders, bombings
and blockades. The chief architect of the Maoist expansion in the Arun
Valley has been Basu Sakya, whose intention was to make Sankhuwa Sabha
'the Rolpa of the east'.
April
2005
Trekking
through Nepal's changing political landscape |
The
first time I visited Nepal in 1999, the people were shrugging the Maoists
off as a flash in the pan. A year later they were seen as a nuisance. By
2002, villagers had fear written on their faces and in 2004, it had changed
to a heavy feeling of despair, resignation and fading hope. They were fed
up with extortion, the fall in trekking tourism caused by the insurgency
and felt let down by successive governments in Kathmandu incapable of resolving
the crisis.
|