Nepal’s ongoing struggle for democracy is gaining momentum. The mostly nonviolent uprising is becoming increasingly popular among the country’s poorer castes; such consensus was cemented by the historic accord between Nepal’s major political parties and Maoist rebels in recent months. But King Gyanendra is unyielding.
But it must be said from the start that Nepal’s plight is a classic case of world hypocrisy, one that involves more than the usual suspects of international players.
The poor Himalayan kingdom has captured imaginations for centuries as a place of extraordinary adventure, unequalled mysticism and a paradise of sorts. But more recently, Nepal is a Discovery Channel prime time destination featuring adventure-crazed Westerners ready to push life to the limit atop Mount Everest.
But what is hardly stated is that Nepal is also an ideal place for exploitation. Its extreme poverty and lack of any economic prospects — destroyed by years of rebellion and decades of medieval totalitarian rule — has resulted in hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Nepalese finding themselves as dispensable, unskilled cheap laborers, avidly exploited across the surrounding region, the Middle East and elsewhere.
Nepal resides somewhere near the top of the list of the world’s poorest countries. Even according to its own standards, 42 percent of the population lives under the poverty line. Internal and external displacements are ample and have in one way or another affected most of the country’s population. Millions of Nepalese crossed the border into India since the civil war broke out in 1996 — claiming the lives of 12,500 people, according to modest estimates. In the months between February and June 2005 alone, 1,570 people were killed, according to the International Crisis Group figures. Additionally, hundreds of thousands are being displaced within the Nepal itself, some moving aimlessly about in search of meager jobs while others reside in shantytowns. The country also is the home of tens of thousands of displaced Bhutanese and Tibetans, which makes the economic crisis even deeper.
The current unrest in Nepal was most predictable. Indeed, tension has been boiling in the country since February 2005 when King Gyanendra sacked the government, arrested opponents, retracted all civil liberties — including freedom of speech and thought — and triumphantly claimed absolute power.
The United Nations, the European Union, various human rights groups and anyone with common sense, knew in advance that King Gyanendra’s ruthlessness was likely to bring about further bloodshed in the politically fractious country. A EU delegation to Nepal in October 2005 warned that the country was on the verge of total political collapse if nothing was done to help in the midst of this looming crisis.
And indeed, little was done. Two reasons are too obvious: One is that Nepal is not Iraq. The country’s natural resources, even if harnessed wisely still fall short of being strategically important booty. Second, changing the status quo is too dangerous from various points of view. A communist dominated country — whether territorially by Maoist rebels or politically by the Communist Party of Nepal, among others — is neither in the interests of regional powerbrokers, such as India, nor of policymakers in Washington or Brussels.
Moreover, despite its insignificance in terms of natural resources, Nepal can still be of some service to Washington. Though American weapons do find their way to Nepal’s army to battle Maoist rebels, the extent of US military’s relations with Nepal is largely ignored, thus remains intentionally blurred. However, most disturbing — yet largely overlooked — were recent news reports which blamed the US Army for using 2,000 of the country’s soldiers as human guinea pigs for its hepatitis vaccine experiments. Now, thanks to these hapless Nepali soldiers, the US pharmaceutical company GlaxoKlineSmith can proudly proclaim that its new “hepatitis vaccine has been found 96 percent effective.”
King Gyanendra enjoys the advantageous position in which he is placed, and, naturally, is exploiting it to the greatest extent possible, even if his authoritarian policies guarantee more bloodshed, further deterioration of the economy and the virtual “auctioning-off” of his country’s men and women to be exploited to inconceivable degrees.
The Nepali protestors, who chanted for freedom not only in Katmandu, but all across Nepal, are simply fed up. They wish for this nightmare to stop. They demand more than democracy, multiparty government, freedom of expression and human rights, but in fact a decisive end to their bondage and abuse, wherever they might be.
— Ramzy Baroud is the editor in chief of PalestineChronicle.com
