Child Soldiering in Nepal
Wars are never won,
not against all that is lost during its course.
Nepal has been plagued by an unstable government since the dawn
of her democracy in 1990. Today, the country is in her most volatile
and fragile state ever with all the political parties rallying
against the other, with the economy struggling to survive, with
little or no basic infrastructures in many parts of the country,
with no government in parts of the country, the so called People's
government in others and both of them in some. The
country is falling apart with a violent and a raging political
battle between the Maoists and the government. Nepal is at its
most volatile and distraught state with missing fathers, murdered
mothers, disappeared journalists, slain teachers and students,
baby orphans, raped sisters, and with children who have been forced
to kill, who are killed by force and a generation traumatized
by fear.
Ever since the uprising of the Maoist movement in Nepal , we have
seen and shown to the world all the evils of a political power
struggle turned civil war. In 8 years, over 9 thousand people
have been accounted for as dead. Of that amount, more than a thousand
have died in the last 2 months alone. Many more remain missing.
Early this year, UNICEF verified and listed Nepal as a country
of which the government and other armed forces are recruiting
children below the age of 18 for armed conflict. The UNICEF has
since requested both the sides to stop conducting violent activities
there, to declare schools a peace zone. But would that be possible?
Only last month, a gun battle at Sharada Higher Secondary School
in Mudbhara, Doti between the Army and the Maoists left four students
dead. The Maoists had forced the children to watch their cultural
program when a patrolling army unit attacked them. The six Maoists
whose bodies were rotting in the school for a week were finally
buried by the army in the school premises. The Maoists came back
to the village this week to rebury their dead comrades outside
the school premises. The teachers and students alike remain reluctant
to go back there.
Krishna Prasad Gautam from the Dhukara VDC joined the militia
when he was in grade 7, and in 2002 had become the commander of
the child soldiers in the area, conducting operations to recruit
other boys. Many students from Dhukhara have gone missing since
joining the Maoists. However, neither the teachers nor the guardians
talk about it. Before joining the armed forces, the children are
often forced to attend mass Maoist meeting, work as porters carrying
equipments around the hills and even as sex slaves.
At the same time,
the security force patrols are unnecessarily rough with the children
and teachers who refuse to tell them where the Maoists are. They
keep quiet out of fear of reprisal from the Maoists but the security
forces take the silence to mean sympathy for the rebels.
When I traveled across
Rolpa to meet Maoists and villagers, to see what the People's
movement rally did at the grass root level. The villages looked
like ghost towns, void of men, there were hungry farmers and the
government presence did not extend beyond the district head quarter.
My first encounter with the Maoists was in a small hut somewhere
in the hills on the way to a small village. The next day, I met
several young boys in school uniform with another in camouflage
wear, showing off his hand grenades. Further up the hill, I met
another boy patrolling the area with a locally produced musket.
Both claimed they were more than 18 years of age, but everything
besides their word spoke otherwise. In fact, one of them even
claimed that he was over 18 and then proudly said he had served
in the militia for 2 years, not realizing the mathematical conclusion
of the statement.
During our stay in Rolpa, they shared their stories with me. Alias
Sunil used to work in Kathmandu . When he came back home for a
break 2 years ago, he was stopped by police, kept in custody and
beaten on suspicion of being a Maoist. After being released, he
joined the Maoists.
The other boy, alias Sushil, told me how the police raided his
house and the he had managed to flee. He then told me that the
security forces took away his 17-year-old niece and raped her
all night. She too joined the Maoists after the incident.
Perhaps the most traumatized soldiers are the child soldiers who
are subjected to propaganda, physical hardship and the horror
of surviving when so many of their young friends die in battle.
They fear getting arrested or being killed by security forces
as much as the communal resentment that awaits many of them when
they go back home.
Child soldier Rabi and his friend joined the Maoist movement out
of curiosity. After having attacked some villages, Rabi had doubts
about the militia, but when he tried to quit, his own friend threatened
to kill him.
There are hopes of a normal life for these children of war in
Nepal just as much as there is hope for Nepal to become a nation
of peace again- unfortunately very little.
The political stands of both the Maoists and the government are
too far apart to come to a compromise. The Maoists demand a socialist
state and the end of the Nepali Monarchy as well as the constituent
monarchy which was setup after the declaration of democracy 13
years ago. King Gyanendra, also the chief of the RNA, in mid 2002
sacked the prime minister citing his inability to control the
country's crumbling situation and suspended the parliament, appointing
a Prime Minister of his choice and allowing him to select the
members of his cabinet. The 5 communist and the 2 congress parties
continue to squabble against each other as well as the ruling
government and the king.
Twice there have been so called cease fire and peace dialogues.
Once, there were talks of asking the Maoist party to join mainstream
politics to run as candidates in the elections. The idea seemed
like it would finally bring peace. The Maoists declared they would
not abandon their way of the gun. But those ideas of peace have
been long abandoned.
At the moment, there is no concrete situation or solution and nor is there a bleak hope of any such thing. Right now there are only horrors, day after day, family after family and child after child.
