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Destitution Forever
- Kulmani Gyawali
After the vigilante
group murdered her husband, Heera Pasi of Baraipur-9, Kapilvastu is
facing enormous difficulties in raising her children. On the one hand,
there is a pain of her 28 year old husband Ramwali burnt alive after
severe beating right in front of her eyes, and on the other hand, there
is a compulsion to provide care for her seven small children.
Her four sons and three
daughters, aged two to ten, have stopped going to school after the
murder of Ramwali. “We, the unlucky children don’t have kismat to study.
There is always a problem to get evening and morning meals,” says Heera,
who has been feeding her large family by wage labor.
The pain of Lalinau
Kewat of Sirsihawa-5 Shivabhari is even more intense. On February 17,
2005 the vigilante group killed her elder son Awadhram after severe
torture. Due to the shock of that incident her second son Guru Prasad
Kewat also died within a month. No other options were left for Lalinau
than wage labor in this old age to feed her huge family of 12
grandchildren and two daughters-in-law.
Before killing Awadhram,
the vigilante group looted all the goods and chattels in the house. “The
house is empty. The culprits left nothing. We will have to beg for food
if I don’t get work,” says Lalinau, crying. Her grandchildren, who had
just started to go to school, have now given up their study to go for
wage labor.
Similar state of
destitution prevails in the families who have lost their dear ones in
the serial killings, which was started in Kapilvastu in course of
defending the Maoists by the vigilante group. When Lautu Chauhan of
Hardauna-2, then working in the fields, saw that his elder brother
Nachan Chauhan had been seized and beaten by the vigilante group
accompanied by the state army, he immediately went there and requested
to free his brother. But, the group did not even spare Lautu.
“Repeatedly saying that you too are a Maoist, they battered him badly.
They poured kerosene on his body and burnt him alive,” Lautu’s wife
Gangamati, who lives by wage labor, says, “He asked for water to drink
while he was gasping in pain. They never gave him a drop of water and he
died. We could not even cremate his body according to our ritual, dogs
ate of his body.”
Except for a couple of
cases, the victims of such incidents, which are too horrific to hear,
are non-political. The people who were working as farmers and laborers
in remote villages became the main target of the vigilante group.
Lalmati says that since
her son was literate, the Maoists used to give him the task of
delivering their letters and sometimes ate in their homes, her son
became victim to the vigilante group. She says, “When the Maoists come
to our village fully armed, you cannot deny their orders, but,
committing crime such as killing someone in cold blood is a thing
deserving condemnation.”
The families of those
who did not have enough knowledge about the Maoists, when killed, are
now facing difficulty in feeding themselves besides the pain of
separation with their near ones. After the murder of their guardians,
many have lost their companions with whom they could share their
happiness and sorrow. Kalika Bhandari of Chanai-9 says that when your
husband is killed, even your neighbors’ behavior toward you changes. The
vigilante group killed her husband Tilakram on February 20, 2005. Before
that incident, she did not need to show much concern about the household
matters. She is facing immense hardship in shouldering household
responsibility now. Laxmi, the widow of Netra Lal Bhandari of
Nandanagar-9 says, “The life becomes extremely miserable when the
breadwinner of the family suddenly passes away.”
Women and children were
the most affected people owing to the series of murders committed by
the vigilante group. The women, who did not have any concern about
politics and were destitute and illiterate, when their guardian was
killed, had to bear the additional problem of feeding themselves. Most
of them became homeless, after their property was robbed or lit to fire.
Several of them even left the village.
Sakur Pasi of Baraipur-9
was killed on February 22, 2005. His wife Dena Pasi along with her eight
children have since migrated from the village. She was forced to do so
because she could not find any shelter in the village after the
vigilante group burnt down her hut. “We don’t know where they are now,”
says Himawati Pasi, her neighbor.
The emergence of the
vigilante group gained momentum when the local residents of Ganeshpur
VDC captured some Maoists collecting donations and beat them to death
with the help of the security forces. The vigilante group committed a
series of terror since February 16, 2005. In the series of murder, which
took place with the support of local administration, 38 people lost
their life. From the terror of the vigilante group, 42 VDCs of the
district were terrorized.
Initially, 13 people
lost their lives on February 25 and after that day till June, 2006, the
number of people killed had reached 38. The vigilante group, with the
help of the administration, set fire on 708 houses. More than one
thousand houses were robbed then. According to the eyewitnesses, when
the vigilante group was burning Nachan and Lautu alive in Hardauna VDC,
and Ramwali, Ankat and Sakur Pasi in Baraipu VDC, the state army was
nearby, but instead of stopping the heinous act, the army helped them.
The activities of the
vigilante group had not come to an end in Kapilvastu till now. The local
in-charge of the Maoist Party Sanjeev Kumar says that the administration
has been providing protection to the people who come out to attack the
common people. He says further, “If no action against them is taken from
anywhere, our people’s court will punish them.”
Body not Found, Cremation Postponed
The vigilante group had
killed the people who were working in the farms or staying at their
home, by beating with canes, stones and woods, on the excuse that they
had helped the Maoists. After murder, they would hand over the dead body
to the army barrack. When the persecuted villagers went to the barrack
to take the body, instead of giving the body, the army would send them
away with threats of severe consequences. Describing the ill-treatment
from the security forces when he went to ask for the body of his son
Bishnu, Mekhnath Panthi says, “When I went to ask for the body, they
kicked me out.” The cremation of the bodies burnt alive were performed
after three days by collecting the bones after being eaten by dogs and
crows.
Since they did not get
the body, most of the families did not perform the cremation according
to their custom. Several of them are in financial crisis. “We are in a
very desperate situation. The vigilante group killed our young son, who
we hoped would take care of us in our old age. We even don’t have money
to meet the expenses for his funeral,” says the old man Mante Kahar of
Sirsihawa-1. His fifteen year old son Sibadh was killed on February 17,
2006. With the expection of Netra Lal Bhattarai, Kiran Poudel, Bishnu
Panthi, Tilakram Bhandari, Nachan Chauhan, Lautu Chauhan, the cremation
of others persons killed by vigilantes, has not been performed yet.
Though such a
considerable number of people lost their lives, no one of the persecuted
families has been given compensation. The families whose kins were
killed on the allegation of being a Maoist were afraid of asking for
compensation. The compensation, however, was not given even to the
families who dared to ask for it. “I registered the application for
compensation in the District Administration Office for three times but
got nothing,” complains Laxmi, wife of Netra Lal Bhandari, who was
killed by the vigilante group in Nandanagar-9 on February 23, 2006. On
the one hand, there is financial burden on the widows of the decease
and on the other, pain of being alone also cuts them deep in their
heart. “When you become alone, you won’t get support as before,” says
Laxmi. Her application at District Administration Office to get the
government allowance for widows has also remained unheard.
When compensation was
asked for the death of Kiran Paudel of Birpur-9, killed by the vigilante
group while watching TV at his home, the administration proposed to his
family to say that the Maoists killed him; but they declined to do so,
says his brother. CDO Narendra Dahal informs that the compensation of Rs.
2 million 450 thousand for the families of those who were killed by the
Maoists, Rs. 607 thousand for those whose property had been destroyed,
Rs. 69 thousand for medical treatment and Rs. 334 thousand for
scholarship have been sanctioned so far. No compensation has been
provided to the families of those who were killed by the vigilante
group, because there is no policy in this regard.
The number of people
asking for compensation is increasing. CDO Dahal says that if the
government formulates a policy to provide compensation, everyone will
get the support. Those persecuted by the vigilante group did not get
relief from the government body obviously because they were alleged to
have assisted the Maoists. The fact, however, is that they were
neglected by the Maoists, too. Several of the persecuted families had
expected that the Maoists would help them because their dear ones had
died in the name of being the Maoists. “The government neglected us, and
when I couldn’t give care to the children, I went to meet the Maoists to
ask for help, but they proposed that they would help me only if I join
the party. Now, where should I go?”, persecuted Laxmi Bhattarai
complains.
Sanjeev Kumar, the
Maoist Party In-charge of Kapilvastu says, “We have been making a plan
to provide relief to all those who were killed in our name. The party
was in situation of war then. So we could not provide relief in time.
Now we are gathering data in this regard.”
The children of the
families victimized by the vigilante group could not go to school. Since
the financial condition of the family is very weak, most of the children
are forced to engage in the wage labor. “We have a wish to send our
children to school for study but how can we meet the family expenses?”
Asks Gangawati of Hardauna-2, pointing to the half-destroyed hut. She
has sent her 10 year old son to Delhi, India for the job of dish
washing. Of her six daughters and two sons, no one goes to school.
The women, children and
elders of the persecuted families, who have become destitute by losing
their only guardian -- all wish for actions taken against the culprits
and a long-lasting peace in the country. However, no one has filed any
complaint against the criminals. “We wish we could live peacefully,”
says Kalika, whose husband Tilakram Bhandari was killed by the vigilante
group in Chanai-9.
The persecuted families
demand that strict action should be taken against the chairperson of the
then cabinet of King Gyanendra, who encouraged the vigilante group in
Kapilvastu assuring to give them direct support; and the then Home
Minister Dan Bahadur Shahi, the Local Development Minister Tanka Dhakal,
the Education Minister Radha Krishna Mainali, Army Chief of staff Pyar
Jung Thapa. One of the victims says, “In an interview with the magazine
Time King Gyanendra encouraged the vigilante group saying that he
welcomed the move of the people of Kapilvastu, who have challenged the
Maoists, rising against them. The person who misled the people must be
punished.”
On February 21, 2005 a
meeting organized in Ganeshpur VDC, Commander-in-Chief Thapa, Ministers
Shahi, Dahal and Mainali had announced that those who engaged in
counter-action against the Maoists would be provided protection and
arms. Dr. Prakash of Birpur demands that if this is the legal state,
action should be taken against the then ministers who encouraged the
vigilante group. The victimis have also raised the voice that the local
administration and state army -- who had provided arms, training and
financial aid to the vigilante group -- should be investigated.
The human rights
organization Advocacy Forum is taking initiative to take actions against
the people involved in the murders in Kapilvastu. The coordinator of the
Forum in Kapilvastu Om Prakash Aryal says, “We have been trying to take
legal action against both the vigilantes and the Maoists who were
involved in murders.”
- Nepal Samacharpatra,
September 2, 2006, p. D |
