By Alok Bhatt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
KATHMANDU, Nepal – Nepalese law enforcement has been trying to quell significant, aggressive strikes occurring on the city streets. Cadres torched and populated the streets of major Nepalese cities in rage at governments security agents’ destruction of over 2,500 squatters’ huts in forests of the Kailali district. Metropolitan areas of Nepalese cities essentially shut down, with colleges, schools, and even bazaars closed down during the strikes.
City-wide transportation services also halted, creating significant travel issues for many civilians. Many strikers also resorted to throwing stones and vandalism to demonstrate contempt for their governments’ violent police actions against the landless squatters.
Maoists previously promised the homeless that they would afford them land on which they could establish themselves. However, when Nepalese police arrived to evacuate the area, tension between the Maoists along with the squatters and the Nepalese law enforcement escalated into severe skirmishes leaving six people dead.
The squatters were being evacuated because Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal was set to deliver a statement on climate shifts in the Kalaili area. Apparently, even a Maoist majority consented to clearing a forest area to hold the discussion. However, when police arrived to survey and initiate clearing procedures, including tearing down the 4,000 shanties, they met with resistance from the homeless forest-dwellers and some of their Maoist supporters.
Per request of the Maoists, a human rights group was called upon to examine the events culminating into the strikes. The Maoist group further demonstrated their disfavor for the police actions by removing themselves from the government after an attempt to stop the head of the Nepalese army.
The police actions against landless squatters raises profound concerns on an international plateau. From the Western perspective, Washington has made a statement the U.S. government finds the police actions contradictory to the democratic process, law, and the pursuit of peace. This by the Nepalese government initiative represent the sort of violence an unjust acts often oppressing impoverished peoples of South Asian nations.
Ultimately, the battle between landless squatters and the Nepalese left fifty injured and six dead. The situation was supposed to have been neutralized on Sunday, yet transportation and other strikes provoked by the attack continue on.
For more information, please see:
Al-Jazeera – Maoists stage strikes across Nepal – 6 December 2009
Deccan Herald – Maoists’ strike paralyses life in Nepal – 6 December 2009
The Hindu – Maoist strike shuts down Nepal – 6 December 2009
