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| PHOTOGRAPH FOR TIME BY TOMAS VAN HOUTRYVE |
| RISING UP: A battalion of the People's Liberation Army, the Maoists' military wing, conducts a drill in the midwestern village of Gairigaon |
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| Gunning for Nepal |
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A TIME special report on the bloody civil war that is tearing the Himalayan kingdom apart |
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By Alex Perry |
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Posted Monday, April 18, 2005; 20:00 HKT
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.
As with everything in this war, it's impossible to know where the truth lies. But the bloodshed is all too real. At an estimated 10 killings a day, Nepal's is the deadliest conflict in Asia. At times—such as when 1,023 died in a single month in 2002—this beautiful mountain kingdom briefly becomes the single most dangerous place on earth. Massacres have become commonplace: a favored Maoist technique is the "wave" attack, in which up to 5,000 rebels head into battle with the objective of leaving no enemy alive.
The brutality is unspeakable. Amnesty Inter-national accuses the 10,000-strong rebel group of kidnapping, torture and murder—including a penchant for clubbing victims to death and dismembering truck drivers who try to breach its blockades. Meanwhile, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group says Nepal's ruler, King Gyanendra, runs "a no-party state that has decimated democracy and kills people at will." Human Rights Watch in New York claims that his security forces have made Nepal the world leader in "disappearances," with at least 1,200 people allegedly missing after being detained in the past four years. Since 2001, the war has cost the lives of 10,000 people. And the killing is far from over. In an e-mailed response to questions from TIME, rebel leader Prachanda warns: "The great People's War has entered its last stage, of strategic offensive."
The situation has already reached a crisis point. On Feb. 1, King Gyanendra seized power, effectively ending Nepal's 14-year experiment with democracy. Police and soldiers arrested hundreds of students, journalists and human-rights workers, and senior politicians were placed under house arrest. In an exclusive interview with TIME at his palace in Kathmandu, the King says: "This is not a coup at all ... [The people] have given a clear message to the terrorists that they are unwelcome and that they will no longer tolerate their attacks, their extortion and their kidnapping." He vows that the 85,000-member Nepalese army will do "whatever is required" to restore order: "Those who do not abide by the law will feel pain."
So far, however, the principal effect of Gyanendra's crackdown has been to gut Nepal's civil society. The right to assemble has been revoked. The Nepalese media are no longer allowed to criticize the government or the army or to mention the Maoists. Even the right to use a mobile phone has been suspended. And the Hong Kong-based Asian Center for Human Rights claims that extrajudicial killings by Nepal's security forces have risen "exponentially" to an average of eight a day. Meanwhile, the rebels continue to besiege the cities and to bomb markets, prisons and police stations.
What's more, there are the makings of a backlash that could plunge the country into deeper disarray. On April 8, more than 500 people were arrested at opposition rallies around the country—including more than 100 in Kathmandu—in the largest protests since the King seized power. The war is also escalating. The R.N.A. claims it killed 148 Maoists while losing only three soldiers when thousands of rebels attacked an army base in Rukum district on April 7. Last week, it boasted it had killed another 64 Maoists in the same area. For their part, the Maoists are waging a deadly bombing campaign against government buildings nationwide, making a particular target of jails where their comrades are held.
Amid this turmoil, the economy is collapsing as tourist trips, exports and foreign aid are canceled. In February, the number of tourist arrivals was down 43% from a year earlier. In a country where the average person scrapes by on an income of $240 a year, many have fled to brothels in Bombay, sweatshops in Southeast Asia and servants' quarters in the Gulf: trade unions say 7 million out of 27 million Nepalis now live abroad. Meanwhile, foreign observers express alarm at an influx of gunrunners, drug barons and terrorists who, as in other failing states, find a home amid chaos. "As bad as it is already," says Human Rights Watch's deputy director for Asia, Sam Zarifi, "it could get so much worse. Warlords. Poppies. The gun becoming entrenched as a way of life. It's almost impossible to fathom what a poorer Nepal would be like, [but] I guess you move from disease to epidemic, and malnutrition to starvation. The best possible scenario is that one of the world's poorest countries just gets poorer."
Continued...
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