& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Tales of Terror

by Prakash Khanal
**8Far from the eyes of reporters and headline-writers, villagers in parts of Nepal are cowering in the crossfire of a vicious conflict between Maoist guerrillas and a police force determined to crush them. A Gemini News Service correspondent has visited the area to see to make an on-the-spot assessment, and reports that the "people's war" is claiming ordinary people as victims***
HUMAN rights workers in Nepal have accused the police of adopting terror tactics — including torture and extrajudicial killing — in the fight against Maoist guerrillas.
Villagers report brutal treatment from both sides in the people's war" which was launched last year by Maoists fighting feudalism and Western influences.
In Rolpa district, where the insurgency began. Amrita Budha tells how her husband Tilakram. Vice-Chairman of Kotegaon village development committee, was awoken one night by policemen and taken away.
T wanted to go with him. but the police told me not to follow." she says. "Next evening I learned of his murder. They did not give us his body for funeral rites. I was told by some villagers that the police cut his body into small pieces and burned it in an Isolated place on the banks of Madhl river."
Twin sisters Janpura and Danpura Budha say Maoists forced them to flee their homes in another Rolpa village. Thawang. under threat of death. They moved to Liwang, the district capital. Two of their relatives were beheaded. The family's crime’ had been to defy an election boycott called by one of the radical groups backing the guerrillas.
The South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre has listed cases of both police and Maoist brutality in a report, Return of the Maoists.
"False court cases against innocent people, their arbitrary arrest, incommunicado detention, torture in custody and extrajudicial killings by the police have terrorised people more than the Maoists," says Ghan-shyam Acharya, who works for a human-rights group. Police have also been accused of gang
In three villages which I vis-
ited relatively close to Liwang. teachers and all students over the age of 14 have fled in order to avoid detention by police seeking out "intellectuals". Many of the remaining villagers flee at the sight of strangers, fearing an attack from one side or the other. People have started to eye each other with suspicion, wonder-
ing who in their midst could be a secret Maoist or a police spy.
More than half the village development committees of Rolpa. in the western hills, are under the control of supporters of the United People's Front (SJM). which, together with the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), supports the masked rebels.
The guerrillas have spread their "people's war" to other areas. including parts of the east. They have attacked, and in some cases driven out, aid agencies, which they accuse of being agents of foreign powers and of creating wealth for only a chosen few.
Arson attacks have caused damage to public property run-
ning to millions of dollars since the insurgency began. Many have died although the exact toll is unclear. The SJM's chairman. Dr Baburam Bhattarai. says that 71 Maoists have been killed by police — most of them through extrajudicial killing — with dozens more missing and feared dead.
The amount and degree of
state oppression, terror and violence in the areas most affected by the people's war in Rolpa cannot be described in words," said Bhattarai in an article in the journal Spotlight.
Police say they have arrested about 1.580 alleged Maoist supporters and released 900 after initial interrogation. Bhattarai disputes these figures, saying that more than 3,000 people have been detained. Women with babies are said to be among those being held in Liwang prison.
Ram Kaji Bantawa. the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, says the government is aware that Rolpa is a poor district and is trying to create awareness among the people
about development projects and to provide them with employment opportunities.
"It is this government action which frightens the Maoists," says Bantawa.
He accuses the insurgents of killing 40 Innocent people and six police officers, and says 50 Maoists have died in clashes. About 1.000 officers have been mobilised to combat them.
The new chief district officer of Rolpa. Prasad Bhandari, says: "ft Is a fight between those who follow the constitution and those who do not. The Maoists want to uproot the present system to establish a people's republic by destroying all those who don't support them. Our responsibility is to protect innocentpeople."
About 250 people wanted by the police have gone into hiding, says Bhandari, while various weapons have been seized by officers.
He denies claims of police brutality and extrajudicial killings. "We have our intelligence source and we have arrested only Maoists." he says, adding that those who have died have been killed either during clashes "or while trying to escape from custody".
The previous government treated the situation as a law-and-order issue. But the new coalition, which includes the more moderate Communist Party (United Marxist-Leninist), has invited SJM leaders to negotiate over the conflict. However. SJM leader Bhattarai describes the move as psychological warfare.
Before real negotiations can begin, he says, the government must cease acts of terror, pull back its forces, release all prisoners and order an Independent judicial inquiry into the cases of alleged extrajudicial killing.
The writer is a freelance Nepalese Journalist.