Yesterday, April 22, we witnessed a in Kathmandu how revolutionary fervour transforms the poor and oppressed people to a determined force for change. The poor of Nepal who for centuries have lived on the crumbs thrown at them by the king and his cohorts, who were treated as chattel and sent out as mercenaries to fight and die for other nations while the king collected commission on the supply of the Gurkha mercenaries, marched on the streets of Kathmandu to show their rejection of the kings offer. The security forces fired on the demonstrators at four different places Tripureshswor, Thapathali, New Baneshwor and Kalanki the Republic Square. About a quarter million people were marching towards Ratna Park, in the centre of Kathmandu. On way to Ratna Park a section of the demonstrators went to the house of G. P. Koirala, the President of Nepali Congress. The leaders of the Seven party Alliance were meeting in Koiralas house to finalise their response to the kings offer. The demonstrators demanded that all the leaders come out and pledge their support to the demand for establishment of a constituent assembly. They also warned the leaders against making any compromise with the king.
The ignorant and the poor masses of Nepal were aware that the ambassadors of France. Sweden U.K. USA, Finland, Germany and the EU had stepped up their pressure on the leaders of the Seven Party Alliance to accept the kings offer. They were trying their best to wreck the 12-Point Agreement between the Seven Party Alliance and the Communist Party of Nepal Maoists. The American news media CNN had joined in this effort of the Western states. Mr Satinder Bindra the CNN correspondent painted a grim picture. He claimed that about two hundred thousand demonstrators were marching toward the Royal place. He suggested that the Maoists had taken over the demonstrations and that they were aiming to storm the Royal Palace. He kept warning of an imminent Maoist take over of Nepal. Quoting the US Ambassador in Nepal he kept emphasising on the Maoist threat to the stability to the region of South Asia. In his early bulletins, he even denied that the army and the armed police were firing at the demonstrators. Perhaps embarrassed by Mr. Bindras obvious partisan reporting, the CNN anchor person later admitted that had received reports from Reuter that the army had fired on the demonstrators.
The king disconnected the mobile phone around 3.00 p.m. Some of the cable TV service providers have stopped their service since midnight. All sources of communications and contact are being closed down one by one. Soon we will not know what kind of brutalities are being perpetrated on the people.
The dictators have always used terror as a tool for remaining in power. The history is full of examples of the terrorised overcoming fear and pulling down the oppressors with their bare hands. Obviously the king of Nepal and his army have not read history. But what of those learned men and women in the West, who frame polices of their government. Huxley was correct. The most important lesson of history is that we never learn from history.
Tapan Kumar Bose
Secretary General
South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR)
Kathmandu
23 April, 2006
Kathmandu, Nepal
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