In the ghost town of Kathmandu

The atmosphere in Nepal after the end of the Maoist ceasefire has become suffused with fear and trauma, identical to what we Nepalese faced ...

The atmosphere in Nepal after the end of the Maoist ceasefire has become suffused with fear and trauma, identical to what we Nepalese faced after the February 2005 clampdown. Fear of the unknown, and for one8217;s life has been touched off again by apparently random incidents of deadly armed clashes, enforcement of strict daytime curfew, clampdown on information, including shutting down of telephone lines. The otherwise lively city of Kathmandu has become a ghost town. Isn8217;t it ironical that only when we are on the verge of losing our civil liberties that the world takes notice?

A group e-mail from the editor of a major Kathmandu weekly read 8220;the government is about to declare Martial Law, any day8221;. But is there any need for the king8217;s government to declare martial law?

Through his flood of royal ordinances and decrees since the February 2005 takeover, the situation in Nepal is of a quasi military rule. Not only has the king severely curtailed civil liberties in these months but basically pushed all Nepali people back to where they stood a decade and a half ago 8212; no more than chattels of his majesty8217;s kingdom. Even worse is the decree 8212; unwritten and unspoken yet so potent 8212; that every word uttered by the king is the supreme law of the land, however aberrant, iniquitous, unjust, inhuman and evil it may be.

King Gyanendra has robbed the Nepali people of what humans cherish most 8212; human dignity, the dignity required to make their own choices, to think and speak freely, to live life as a human being, not a life of a chattel, the dignity to dream and hope for a better future.

Unfortunately, the alternatives to monarchy are not rosy either, they appear no less bloodthirsty. However, the Maoists for their own motives declared a unilateral ceasefire to which the king8217;s government responded by doing nothing except twiddling their thumbs and complaining that this as hogwash. Hogwash it may indeed have been, but the king could have at least responded to their overtures. It would have helped him to expose the Maoists if they went back on their word.

The end is to bring back peace 8212; that8217;s what Gyanendra has been claiming since he came to the throne. War, and then there shall be peace 8212; how ridiculous, fatuous and insane.

It8217;s as if he is saying: 8220;To you subjects I8217;ll give peace: however for achieving that peace, I will colour the soil red with blood, fill the air with the smell of blood, make rivers of blood.8217;8217; Who will then be left to savour such a peace? Will there be any family left that won8217;t be mourning?