(source: INSN.org)

Madi's Mass-Murder and the Future of Maobaad

Tuesday's setting sun was witness to the cremation of thirteen bodies by the banks of the Reyu, the river that waters the beautiful, fertile, neglected valley of Madi on the far side of the Royal Chitwan National Park. Those cremated were among the 38 who died on the spot when Maoists exploded a bucketful of sulphur compound under a passenger bus packed with 150 people.

Traveling in the bus were a dozen army men in civilian clothing moving between the military posts of Baghai and Bankatta, many of them carrying weapons. For more than a year, the villagers of Madi had been warned by the Maoists not to allow this. It was impossible for the villagers to make such demands of the RNA, however; and the rebels, who seem to be in a violent post-political phase, obviously do not care how many civilians they kill in order to get at a few soldiers.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoist chieftan, apologized on Tuesday via email to media houses. But it is not clear from earlier gestures of contrition how much his writ runs any more among the young men whose heads he has filled with the romance of violence and in whose hands he has placed guns and explosives.

Madi is a convenient valley for Maoist activity, surrounded as it is by jungle on three sides, and separated from Bihar by one low range.

To the north, the rebel supply line passes through the national park, across the East-West Highway, past Pithuwa, up to the Chepang Hills, into Dhading and Gorkha beyond. What is known is that the Maoist commander of Madi Valley, carrying the name of Kshitij, was replaced a month ago. It is thought this might be related to the rift that has driven the rebels from top to bottom into 'Baburam' and 'Prachanda' camps.

The week previous to the bus attack, there had been extraordinary nighttime activity on the valley's trails, with dogs constantly barking into the darkness. The wire-guided improvised explosive device (IED) was put in place on Monday night. The rebels placed the sulphur compound ? a chemical used in rock blasting ? in a ten-litre bucket and buried it under sand at the point at which the bus would divert into the dry bed of the Bandar Mudhe stream to avoid a broken-down bridge. Thick intertwined red and black wires snaked away under the sand and through kaans grassland for about two hundred metres to the point at which someone holding a trigger ? most likely a flash mechanism ? would have watched that morning as two tractors drove over the device, followed by one bus making its way up-valley to Baghai, and finally the down-valley bus, crammed with passengers inside and on the roof.

The Shaligram Travels bus, license plate Na 1 Kha 3245, enters the depression of the dry river bed at about 7:55 am. The terrorist presses the switch, and the explosive goes off right under the central chassis. It rips through the passenger cabin, lifts the vehicle high into the air and deposits its shattered remains back on the ground in an explosion of smoke, dust and sand. Underneath, amidst the screams of the mutilated and the moans of the dying, water slowly fills the gaping cavity made by the bomb, as if it were a well. The men who had left their seats to the children, women and elderly and chosen to travel on the roof mostly survive. They are blown away and land on the sand at some distance. Those inside the main cabin do not stand a chance.

Because of incessant flash floods and attacks by wild animals, Red Cross committees are very active in each of Madi's four Village Development Committees. And so within minutes of the explosion, the Red Cross unit from the next-door Tharu village of Kirtanpur was at the site and was soon joined by other units. "There were writhing bodies and torn limbs everywhere," recalled one lad, part of a students' group that cordoned off the site. The local health post ambulance, which could fit four of the wounded, immediately made off for Bharatpur Hospital two hours away across the national park, and buffalo carts were pressed into service to carry others.

By the time the military rescue unit arrived from nearby national park, the locals had already dealt with the civilian wounded, and only the dead lay about. Of the 12 army men who had been on board, three died, four were wounded and the surviving five had dragged their companions to a nearby knoll and waited for rescue. Their guns and magazines were collected by the villagers and handed over to the RNA rescue team.

Soldiers, as citizens, can travel by public transportation anywhere they like when they are off-duty. All over the country, however, they also do so while on patrol, sometimes in civilian clothing with their M-16 rifles under wrap. This amounts to using civilians as shields against ambush by Maoists, who are increasingly relying on landmines instead of launching frontal attacks against military positions. In using public transportation, the soldiers are also presumably relying on some level of humanity amongst the rebels, assuming that they would not willingly endanger civilians. The soldiers from the Baghai post, for instance, may not have reckoned that they and their fellow travelers would encounter a rebel depraved enough to press a switch and watch a public bus packed to the brim with villagers blown to smithereens. Nirmal Sapkota flies to Bharatpur to discover the fate of his wife and child Nirmal Sapkota flies to Bharatpur to discover the fate of his wife and child

Krishna Chaudhary, an active social worker known by one and all up and down the Madi valley, kept the master lists of the deceased and the wounded on two separate sheets. There they were in the list of the departed: Tharu, Gurung, Magar, Chepang, Bahun, Chhetri, and one Shrestha; a Little Nepal of migrants who had settled this fertile, picture-postcard valley originally inhabited only by the Tharu. In Chaudhary's list of the deceased was noted: 'Woman, wife of Nirmal Sapkota' and 'Child, son of Nirmal Sapkota'. I had flown with Nirmal Sapkota to Bharatpur from Kathmandu earlier that day. When we landed, he had headed straight to Bharatpur Hospital by riksa in search of his wife and son. He would have already learnt the terrible truth.

Says Krishna Chaudhary, "Madi has a very close-knit community, because it is isolated from the rest of the country by the national park and its regulations. We suffer flash floods and the trepidations of wild animals. We have evolved the culture of looking after each other. Each villager of Madi feels the pain of what happened on that bus, because we are a special kind of community within Nepal." Looking despondently over his list, Chaudhary says, "The people we pulled out of the wreckage were all people we knew ?18 from Kalyanpuri, 17 from Ayodhyapuri. There was a family of four from Jhapa, one from Dhading and one from Lalitpur."

The attack occurred Monday, 6 June. It is now Tuesday, and the wounded are in Bharatpur Hospital and Chhauni Military Hospital in Kathmandu.

The bodies of the dead have been dispatched for cremation, each according the rituals of the individual's community. Two Chepang passengers are said to be still missing. An eight-year-old boy's body is found in the sand, headless and unclaimed. Already in a state of decomposition, he is buried under a foot of earth which is then covered with a straw mat extracted from the wreckage; he is left there to await a claimant. Scattered about are several infant's bonnets, scores of chappals of children and adults alike. There are mangoes and a bagful of sel-rotis scattered in the sand, someone's koseli from Madi to a relative far away.

The bodies are all gone, and only the carcass of the bus remains. The inside is a mass of twisted steel, protruding beams and bloodied seat cushions. The twin-beams of the main chassis are bent like putty.

Nobody in the center of the passenger cabin survived, the rest of the seated passengers were severely injured. Everyone crowded into the driver's section in the front seems to have survived, including the driver himself, 21-year-old Bikram Mahato. Only his body aches, he says, but he walks about as if in a daze. "Why did they do this to a public transport bus?" is all he is able to express. His fellow villager and Red Cross volunteer, Ram Chandra Gurou, is eloquent in his plea: "Madi was such a peaceful place. What had we done to deserve this? Nobody has cooked a meal here since yesterday, we are in such shock. Let not something like this happen ever again, anywhere in Nepal."

A Mahindra jeep hired by Ramanuj Bhandari carries the body of his mother Sumitra Bhandari, 52, to Gaidakot by the banks of the Narayani for cremation. She had gone to her sister's for a wedding. On their way back from the same wedding, a family of Lamsals ? father Dinesh, mother Ganga, and daughters Dipa and Dipika ? all perished and were cremated by the Reyu on Tuesday. Four sons of Ram Chandra Subedi, a 56-year-old local activist for the Nepali Congress, are already deep into mourning ritual. His 80-year-old mother comes and sits by the four sons, while his bereaved wife stands alone, vacant-eyed and lost. Says the eldest son, Krishna Subedi, "Why do they ambush the public like this? And why does the army take public transportation?"

In the tenth year of their insurgency, the Maoists have carried out an attack that has killed more civilians than ever before. It has been claimed that of late politics has taken a back seat in their organisation as the military-minded hardliners have had the upper hand. But killing innocent civilians is not a military act: it is terrorism. The Madi murders, as one terrible incident, represent the continuous acts of violence perpetrated by the rebels upon the population; individual killings, maimings and acts of terror that force the people into shocked submission.

The abysmal record of the Royal Nepal Army when it comes to civilian casualties is an issue in itself, and there is also a list of those culpable for having brought the country to this pass, from the royal palace to the political party leaderships and every institution in between. But more than any other person or institution, it is the Maoists who have been responsible for stealing the people's future. They have made political killings and violence commonplace in Nepal. They have dragged the army out of the barracks. They have made the monarchy arrogant and ambitious. They have weakened Nepal internationally and vis-à-vis India. And, most importantly, they have exploited Nepal's under-educated rural youth, tempting them with the promise of change imposed by the power of the gun, shunning the much harder but more fulfilling path of social revolution.

The Maoists have changed the nature of the country, and at this late date their leadership obviously understands that the 'revolution' is slipping out of their hands even though their cadre may for the moment have the run of the countryside. But does Pushpa Kamal Dahal have what it takes to come in from the cold? He has apologized often enough, as he did after the Madi mass-murder, but his fighters seem not to be marching to his drum. He has told them, he says, to allow political parties to function on the ground. They do not listen. He says "Do not target civilians," and they do. It is entirely possible that Pushpa Kamal knows he cannot beat the RNA and the existing international geopolitical alignments, but he does not have the strength or the courage to sue for peace. There is today a real question as to whether the fighters will heed the call of the high command. And it is quite likely that the ground-level fighters are unwilling to put down their guns because they know that they will be run out of the villages and the districts the moment they do so.

There are some who have always said in defence of the Maobaadi that "they have a point" when they call for social justice and the emancipation of the downtrodden. What very few of us did as the 'revolution' gathered steam, either out of fear for self or out of mistaken romanticism, was to stand up for ahimsa and challenge the central tenet of the Maobaadi rebellion: that it is justifiable to kill for a political goal. Reflecting the change in attitudes that augurs uncertain times ahead countrywide for the Maobaadi, one elder in Madi says, "They had some friends here. Now, they have none. Some people used to give them shelter. But now no one will." A letter in Kantipur daily on Thursday, written from Baghauda village in Madi, reads: "This question is particularly addressed to Prachanda, Baburam and Mahara: Why kill the people? You may or may not want to recall spending a full month in a particular part of Madi fourteen years ago. Do you remember who looked after you then? Just try and come back toMadi now, and you will see how the folks will chase you and your cadre away. They despise you?"

Despite their ultra-nationalist rhetoric, the Maoists are evolving into what can only be called anti-nationalists as they continue to kill civilians across the land. Let them not fall further into the abyss, into which they will drag all of Nepal. Let the Madi incident serve as a watershed for the Maoists. Let the horrified reaction of the populace bring about a realization to the rebel leadership that they have done the Nepali people grave injustice. That they have tried an unprincipled and impractical short cut to social change by seeking to force change at gunpoint. That they have helped militarise our society and that they have mistreated our trusting young. That there is no future in what they seek. That they must announce an absolute ban on attacks on civilians, followed soon by a willingness to lay down the gun. They must allow political parties to function in thevillages.

The mea culpa by Pushpa Kamal Dahal is not enough. To wipe the bloodstains from his hands, he must make a definitive move to bring his fighters and activists back to the realm of peaceful politics.

First, stop attacking civilians. Desist from the use of
assassinations, ambushes, landmines and IEDs. Make sure directives from the high command get implemented on the scorched ground. Next, drop the gun.

Kanak Mani Dixit is editor of Himal Southasian.

(A shorter version of this article appears in the Nepali Times of 10 June, Friday.)

Somehow I missed the original source of this article. Sorry, the proper citation is:

http://www.nepalnews.com.np/archive/2005/others/feature/jun/news_feature02.php

Very nice article from Dixit. Thanks for posting here. I have listened his interview on BBC regarding his spot-visit in Chitwan, that was really fair analysis from his side.

I hate to say this, but this sort of article is too common in Nepal, especially after
the deaths of many civilians.

Let's get one thing clear: This is NOT the first time that the Maoists have killed so
many civilians and have said sorry. This will NOT be the last time they do so.

That is why, this whole issue will be history by next week, and life in Nepal will
have moved on to more killings and more mayhem.

If not, then, how come EVEN AFTER ALL THESE DEATHS in the last 10 years:

a) Nepali civil society members and the State do not have a basic apparatus in place to identify the dead and mourn for them properly? (If the recent past is any guide, these unnecessarily dead Nepalis, often drawn from the poorest sections of Nepal, will end
up being no more than blips of statistics in this civil war, forgotten after that.)

b) Nepali civil society members and the State do not have a basic apparatus to find a way to provide relief, let alone compensation, to the victims. In fact, other families of the Maoist victims were recently rounded up and beaten in Kathmandu by the Police.

MY point is this: As long as some civil society members risk their own lives to press for SPECIFIC changes (and NOT always talk about GENERAL human rights issues) in the system (for instance, say, pressing our mafia-like bus companies to insure ALL passengers and pay proper compensations to victims), nothing;s going to change by calling for peace and more peace.

May the victims -- who are, as is usually the case, related to no one powerful and influential in Nepal -- ko souls rest in peace.

oohi
ashu

Sad but true, what do do? :)

Kanak Mani's article doesn't mention INDIA at all. The future of Maobaad has a lot to do with India's increased involvement in Nepali politics. While India , officially, claims Maoists to be terrrorists, it constantly hobnobs, in secret or not to secret, with the Maoist heirarchy.

The Maoists would really feel the squeeze if India decides to disengage with them. They are already feeling a lot of heat from the bus debacle and the supposed split between Babu Ram and "the firece one" camps.

Nothing personal, but I rather applaud Kanak for his courage to speak out against the atrocities committed by both the royals (and his cronies) and the Maoist than some dubious, ?in-between? democrats, who are often the first ones to raise scepticism to anything that targets, one way or another, the King.

Why is it so damn hard for these ?in-betweens? to appreciate and recognize the fact that Kanak fairly articulated what the most of us have in our heart and mind. And, it matters. No matter how "ordinary" or "common" these articles may seem, I salute them for being honest to the cause they believe in. It's indeed better than keeping quiet (try to keep others quiet), and worse, question the genuine concerns with sarcastic scepticism as if nothing matters.

With this kind of violent path Maoists have followed, they will not get anywhere in the positive changes that claim to bring. When all is over, all the deaths will go for no use, and the nepalses citizens would have been immune to daily violence and brutal killings.

Here's another incident:

http://www.nepalnews.com.np/archive/2005/jun/jun10/news12.php

Maoists attack a passenger bus; six security personnel, two civilians reported as killed

Reports from Kavre district say Maoist insurgents on Friday have attacked a passenger bus in which security personnel were also travelling at a place called Narke along the B. P. highway in the district Friday afternoon.

Security sources in the district said a group of armed insurgents?said to be hiding on hills near Narke river of the Dhulikhel-Nepalthok section of the B. P. highway?opened fire and also threw bombs at the bus at around five p. m. on Friday. Security personnel were traveling on the hood as well as inside the bus, according to reports.

According to security sources, six security personnel and two civilians died in the attack. One of the civilians, who was killed in the attack, was a helper of a vehicle belonging to the Department of Roads that was traveling just behind the passenger bus, reports said quoting eyewitnesses.

Reports said around two dozen people ? most of them security personnel-- traveling in the passenger bus were also injured in the assault.

The casualty on the part of the rebels could not be immediately known. The driver of the bus?a civilian?was reportedly injured during clashes.

Details are still awaited.

There was no word from the authorities in Kathmandu till late Friday.

On Monday, 39 persons?including three security personnel?were killed and over 70 civilians were injured when the Maoist insurgents cause landmine explosion targeting a passenger bus at Bandarmudhe in Chitwan district. Maoists later owned up responsibility for the incident and offered a public apology.

International humanitarian law prohibits warring sides from attacking civilian targets under any pretext. It also prohibits security personnel from using civilian vehicles for the purpose of transport or for operations. nepalnews.com by June 10 05

Emodus,

As a long-term Nepal watcher, I have come to see that this is how the game is played (while the same mistakes get repeated on and on) in Nepal.

Allow me to explain.

1) Let's say that something nasty happens in Nepal. Take this example (of so many civilians being killed on that bus), which is truly a sad and heart-rending crime.

2) Everybody agrees that it's sad that such a thing has happened. Political parties and others issue their obligatory letters of condemnation.

3) THEN: Various members of Nepali Civil Society look for ways to react to it. And this part is what I always find interesting in that whatever they do, their work amounts to one big navel-gazing activity. What I mean is this: If there had been a journalist on the bus, Bishnu Nisthuri and his journalist brothers would be on the streets by now. If there had been a lawyer on that bus, Shambhu Thapa and others would be calling for Prachanda's elaborate apology. If there had been a human rights activist on that bus, the entire human rights brigade would be marching outside of Ratna Park.

But none of that is LIKELY to happen.
Because, you know why?
No one important (journalist, human rights activist or even a lawyer) got killed in
that bus accident (and that's a very good thing!)

But who got killed?
Faceless, nameless, defenceless and poor Nepalis -- who have, since 1996, silently CONTINUED to supply statistics as innocent casualities of the war. They've been killed by the Maoists and the Army personnel.

4) That is why, the OVERAL reaction amounts to no more than: public obituaries that
are are GENERAL and VAGUE with some people engaging in the usual louder-than-thou condemnations of the Maoists.

5) Asking the Maoists to give up violence -- in whatever tones -- is like asking cats to be vegetarians. Let's be very clear about this. Violence is coded into the DNA of Maoist idealogy. How many deaths of poor Nepalis does it take for us to understand this
simple point?

MEANTIME, TO AVOID SUCH AN ACCIDENT IN FUTURE, WHAT STEPS HAVE BEEN TAKEN?

The answer: None.

1) Has the Army been sent a letter or words of strong protest for using public buses to transport "civilian-dressed" soldiers, thereby increasing civilans' risks?
No.

2) Has the life insurance policies of bus companies changed to benefit the victims?
No.

3) Has even the dead been fully identified by the press so that their human stories are written up about as representative of Nepalis who have suffered the most in this senseless war wrought by Pushpa Kamal Dahal?
No.

In other words, all of us have repeatedly FAILED (and I blame the card-carrying members of the civil society the most because they have set themselves up to do these kinds of work the most) the to start working to put in nitty-gritty things in place so that we can better deal with such accidents in the future.

But that's not going to happen, right?

And so, as a result, the next time, such an accident happens, what happens?
Go back to the start of the post, and repeat the game as necessary.

This is my "cynical" interpretation.

oohi
ashu

Nice article by Dixit, and good points by Ashu too;
Yeah, imagine the mentality of passengers when they suddenly find the bus stopping (of course no option) to pick up the armed forces on patrol destination. The govenrnment should learn from these two latest incidences and the RNA and other forces of the government should be directed to avoid using public transport on securitry assignments.
Regarding casualty, numbers will only increase as if the grand design is to reduce the population of Nepal to half its current status. Demonic in itself, unguided revolution ending up in ethnic tensions, and undisciplined warlords fighting for their share of foothold. Nepalese community; meek spectators waiting for someone (even they don't know who and when?) to come and set things right.
Guardian of the nation as he claims to be should have visited the site of the barbaric incident, or least dispatched his representatives to show the common people that this government do care.
Alas!, nowhere to turn to common people's life in Nepal is in worst state than any other conflict anywhere in the world. When will it gonna end, how much bloodshed more do we have to see, before good sense prevails overall.

This thread meant to mourn the massacre of 35 innocent civilians and 3 private citizens who were serving for the country. And, there comes a 'preacher' (or fatichar, I wonder), who does not even bother to write a word or two to share the thoughts with bereaved ones before starting to lecture in-length the do's and do not's of the ways to make things 'right.'

And, s/he does so, as if Kanak or other so-called 'civil society' leaders did something really bad by mourning the loss of human lives with what they could and/or have: sharing, writing and narrating human sufferings that may not mean anything to the person with lots of frustrations and confusions with life, but certainly is courageous enough to speak for their cause (Go check how small narratives like these helped indict the war-criminals in Bosnia, Cosovo, etc.)

Ashutosh, I never knew you--'a long-time Nepal watcher,' would dare to have such 'cynical interpretations' on the loss of 38 human lives. Your being a cynical on 'anti-king' protests was one thing that was fully understandable, given your 'in-between' position, but let's at least have a common human decency to let others mourn this gruesome war crime and tell the world that the crimes like these will not go unnoticed, shall we? No matter how small and haphazard such efforts may seem to you, let's try to appreciate someone with the guts to do so.

Also, you seem to imply that nothing will happen and it's even futile to document such acts, and that Shambhu Thapa or Bishnu Nisthuri's death would have made a difference. I wonder now why you selective chose them in stead of the current high profiles like Sharat Chandra Shah, Tulsi Giri, Bharat Keshari Singh, and Sachit JBR? Wouldn't their death provoke exactly what you want to see 'civil-society' leaders should doing? Hope you are not mad that people like Shambhu and Bishnu, who once were thought to be not so politically charged against the King, are really up to something these days: fighting for the civil liberty and press-freedom.

Having said that, let me say this. I can bet my money on this that you will have more reasons to jump up and down and do some sophomoric rants with another round of 'bashings' and 'elaborations' of you usual repetitions. However, let's this thread to be exactly what it meant to be: mourning of the fellow countrymen's (and women) lives. Let's keep our differences for another occasion, which I am sure is just around the corner.

You have a great night.

kanak dixit's article collects the sentiments of bereaved families, it is as staggering to him as it is to you and me. it's too cheap to drown him in allegations that these articles are only a part of the 'game' and will contribute nothing to the changing face of society. as a journalist, and as a member of a civil society, he is doing what can be done. if he were an activist, he would have come down to streets. and it is too naive to think that only getting down to streets shouting slogans will bring a significant change. every member of society has significant roles; more so, an unbiased media is the cornerstone of democratic society. if they were to stop reporting these massacres, civil society that consists of lawyers, activists, teachers, technicians, would be dormant and less reactive to incidents such as these.

sometimes these repetitive phrases asking maoists to give up arms sound futile, after all, we know they won't give up arms. but as dixit has said, maoist stronghold is lessening; its cadres spread throughout the country have started drifting away from the command of leadership. it is only natural to ask then; it's hope, by sere accident if maoists were to give up arms and somehow reconcile with the govt. what would one do, in a situation like this where there is no possibility of negotiation, and suppression is bringing more civillian casualty?

about what steps have been taken to stop accidents, or to stop violence from the maoists side, to gain full democratic rights in present situation...easier said than done. but we're getting there, one step at a time. today we can see a bank statement on tulsi giri's corruption, tomorrow dristi might publish royal plunderings on national capital. isnt that something? would we have imagined that happen in panchayat era?

kanak dixit's article collects the sentiments of bereaved families, it is as staggering to him as it is to you and me. it's too cheap to drown him in allegations that these articles are only a part of the 'game' and will contribute nothing to the changing face of society. as a journalist, and as a member of a civil society, he is doing what can be done. if he were an activist, he would have come down to streets. and it is too naive to think that only getting down to streets shouting slogans will bring a significant change. every member of society has significant roles; more so, an unbiased media is the cornerstone of democratic society. if they were to stop reporting these massacres, civil society that consists of lawyers, activists, teachers, technicians, would be dormant and less reactive to incidents such as these.

sometimes these repetitive phrases asking maoists to give up arms sound futile, after all, we know they won't give up arms. but as dixit has said, maoist stronghold is lessening; its cadres spread throughout the country have started drifting away from the command of leadership. it is only natural to ask then; it's hope, by sere accident if maoists were to give up arms and somehow reconcile with the govt. what would one do, in a situation like this where there is no possibility of negotiation, and suppression is bringing more civillian casualty?

about what steps have been taken to stop accidents, or to stop violence from the maoists side, to gain full democratic rights in present situation...easier said than done. but we're getting there, one step at a time. today we can see a bank statement on tulsi giri's corruption, tomorrow dristi might publish royal plunderings on national capital. isnt that something? would we have imagined that happen in panchayat era?

Nice article but i agree in many points with Ashu.

I think in general we Nepalis are hypocrites and passive. We like to say sorry to things but then do nothing to make the situation better for people or also for us unless it directly hit us and then we would be the only one that time.
This is the saddest part in all.
Many times even the drivers or the conductors are also not responsilbe and are not loyal to their jobs and do not want to try anything.But i do not blame them at all.
THis is our country in every sector and every field i guess.
Even look at development sector, we all know that there are good products like apples and other stuff in Jumla but then we knew it 20 years back but no one bothers make a road or build transportation to bring that in Kathamdnu so that these people would really benefit or be richer. They just do small things and that's it...that is development.

Emodus,

Believe me, as per my words above, I am as heart-broken as you are about the deaths of those innoccent, nameless, defencesless and poor Nepalis. This is NOT the first time the Maoists have killed innocent Nepalis, nor will this be their last time.

Statistically, those Nepalis probably fall somewhere between 13000 and 14000 dead Nepalis so far. With so many dead, even tears do not come easily after a while!

It's just that, having seen how Kanak's sort of GENERAL indigation has played out in public in the past, I am LESS swayed by it now than I used to.

Let me make myself clear: It's NOT that I personally do not appreciate Kanak's journalistic efforts. I do. I really do. My cynicism here is NOT directed at Kanak per se.
It's more toward the card-carrying members of the Nepali civil society, who are quick to look out for the members of their own, WHILE neglecting the poorest and the defenceless citizens to fend on their own.

That is why, I can say that all the indigation of the world, no matter how passionate and heart-felt, will NOT:

a) force our bus companies set up and carry out better, if any, insurance schemes for our bus-riding Nepalis in the event of deaths like this.

b) make our bus companies stop from carrying 100+ passengers in a bus meant for
50 passengers.

c) make the army sit up and apologize that it was/is utterly callous/stupid/unprofessional and irresponsible act on its part to INCREASE risks to civilains by having army personnel ride public buses in such a manner.

d) make the Maoists renounce violence.

In these sad times, it's easy to mourn the deaths of these Nepalis, who are, BTW, related to NO ONE influential and powerful and connected in Nepal.

That is why, It's politically incorrect to ASK, well, what can we do in SPECIFIC TERMS
so that we learn to use this terrible tragedy to DECREASE the likelihood of such accidents from happening next time, and even if they happen, we learn to mitigate the impact?

My argument is this: If we, as a society are doing NOTHING about the nitty-grittyy glamorous work, but only protesting and writing sob-stories, then, no matter, how
valid those sob-stories are, we WILL have failed to do real justice to the memory of those dead Nepalis. And that, to me, is the greater tragedy here.

Please feel free to disagree, and call me names.
I wish you well.

oohi
ashu

PLEASE READ

"about the nitty-grittyy glamorous work"

AS

"about the nitty-grittyy UNglamorous work"

Ashutosh, I thought of giving you the last words on this, as you always seek, but let's face it: your list of a, b, c, and d are nothing more than `arguments for the sake of an argument.' I am saying it, because you aren?t saying anything new, expressed or implied, than Kanak?s points about the circumstances that led to the massacre. Have you even read the article fully?

Also, are you just a naïve or are you trying to be an ?obnoxious? by repeating the same argument time and again that ?civil society leaders care more only if one of their own is on the news-headline.? Isn?t it the same in your case? Wouldn?t you care more and do something of your capacity, had it hit you more personally? Isn?t it a KATUSATYA everywhere?

But, no, you went extra-miles to demonize people like Kanak and other civil society members (not Tulsi Giri, Sarad Chandra Shah, Bharat Keshari, and others who have the 'power' to make the above 4 wishes of yours come true) for ?playing the usual game.?

Hence, my last point to you is that you often poke at the weaknesses of the fledging civil-society that is already stifled by the autocratic King and the cronies you have had a fortune to be associated with for all these years. Have guts to see the larger picture: if you wanna blame the civil-society for not doing enough, first blame the feudal mindset of monarchy and the bhai-bhardars who never want to see civil society flourishing in the first place.

For me, your obfuscation: shaping, slicing and selectively presenting data and facts, is another attempt to distract, if not mislead, the people with genuine cause. Rather than celebrating and building on the strength of civil society, you chose to demonize them and for that, I would say, you sound no different to me than Tulsi Giri trying to pulverize the civil society for being 'driven by foreign donors...'

Indeed, i have to agree with Ashu. He told exactly what I feel.

In some other thread i raised the issue, when 11 nepalis murdered in IRAQ, what a big protests we saw in Nepal.

Here 38 people were murdered, that even by own nepali brothers, and yet there was no protests whatsoever. Who's supposed to bring out the protests to tell Maoshits clearly and loudly? You all know who supposed to do this.. ashu has enumerated those card holders, politcial parties, and human right activists... Not one day, they should have organized n number days of protests to voice LOUDLY against this cruelty against own Nepalis.

Oh, here is the suprize of the century! Why just we limit it to the protests followed after what happened in Iraq? Let's talk about the aftermath: the right wing Pashuptai Sena, Muskan Sena, Shiv Sena were more than happy to assume responsibilities of the protests and the highly organized vandalisms that targetted certain interests. And, guess what? Go figure who provides patronise to these right wings.

Emodus said:Nothing personal, but I rather applaud Kanak for his courage to speak out against the atrocities committed by both the royals (and his cronies) and the Maoist than some dubious, ?in-between? democrats, who are often the first ones to raise scepticism to anything that targets, one way or another, the King.

..I agrree with you and agree the fact that Kanak subtley expressed it proly why he hasn't been arrested for journalism by much dumbass RNA..

why the hell RNA travelling to madi...a tharu villlage who sustain their living by fishing hunting ..a corner of Maoist nepal that the KIngs ignored earlier..i'm sure if they had reached the place first RNA would have demolished the villages...and everybody would applaud ...saying they were all maoist..Now that few civilians die by maoist it is quite an issue..

I don't mean to be cruel but after cuttting up so much chickens or even people, the surgeons don't feel a thing....and i guess its all fair in love and war..only the resulting hero will write the history his own way...

and if people win...we'll have to find a tree to hang the Badar Senapati...the bane of our existence...the cause of all the wars...