As army and monarchy block all news, Tehelka brings you updates from the ground

UNDER SEIGE: Nepalese soldiers patrol the streets of Katmandu

The aftermath of King Gyanendra’s takeover has seen unprecedented repression in Nepal. There has been a total communication blockade with the army taking over all media and communication networks. Large sections of the people, especially in remote areas of this hill kingdom, are still unaware of the royal coup and the suppression of all democratic rights. Nepal is now totally cut-off from the world, suffocated and terrorised by the shadow of the gun, and ruled by an autocratic and discredited king and his wayward son, with a proxy, truncated cabinet of unelected royalists who follow the king’s unilateral orders. Tehelka brings you snippets, e-mails, letters, reports, updates and appeals from the ‘underground’ because there is a total ban on non-Royalist news and because all news is manufactured news. These reports are not really absolutely reliable within the strict paradigms of journalistic objectivity because it is physically impossible to check the facts. But we can testify that people who are sending or reporting this information are doing so at great risk to themselves and to their friends and relatives. However, this is the only way to be linked to the reality of a country where freedom has been decisively choked and human rights activists and journalists, among others, are being hounded, picked up or tortured.

There are too many tales which are not being told, which remain hidden or which disappear: like the people picked up by the army. One day, they will surely be told. Till then, the trickle of information is also a moment of resistance and the hope for a society which may, one day, witness the experience of being a true people’s democracy based on equality, freedom and justice.

Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) is reported to have arrested pro-democracy schoolteachers and political activists from Chitwan district. There are also reports of the RNA going around the town to big businesses houses with prepared statements welcoming the king’s takeover of power, and forcing businessmen to sign the statements at gunpoint. These statements are subsequently published in the newspapers and broadcast through television and radio as advertisements paid for by the businessmen themselves.

The Nepali broadsheets have carried news on the whereabouts of some of the leaders detained or under house arrest, based on the information provided by the home ministry. A few dozen political leaders who had been detained at the Armed Police Headquarters, Kathmandu, were reportedly blind-folded, put into army vehicles with opaque glass windows, taken to Tribhuvan airport, and from there flown to Kakani and Panchkhal barracks on helicopter, with a ‘Russian pilot’. Their condition is not known. According to home ministry reports, the government charged some of the arrested or detained leaders under the Public Security Act and put them under ‘preventive detention’ for three months. However, the RNA spokesperson Deepak Gurung said yesterday that the five former prime ministers, main leaders of the parliamentary political parties, and their cadres, were detained or put under house arrest ‘for their own security’.

The army has apparently continued their attempts to track and arrest human rights defenders. Army personnel visited the office of the peace and human rights network, Collective Campaign for Peace (COCAP), at Anamnagar, Kathmandu on Friday, February 4, at 5:30 pm and on Sunday, February 5, at 9:00 am. They were asking the whereabouts of the coordinator of COCAP.
Army personnel visited the houses of some human rights activists, who were reportedly on the hit list of the army even before the king’s military coup. The human rights activists were not at home at the time of these visits.

ROYAL GAG: government workers eliminating a sign issued by the Congress Party calling for a meeting in front of a university in Katmandu

News from outside the Kathmandu valley is difficult to gather and verify. The list of district level leaders arrested from around the country has not been made public. In the absence of media and international gaze, and the well-known record of blatant disrespect for human rights by the king and the military, the likelihood of mistreatment against them is very high. The phone lines were active for about two hours on Saturday or Sunday afternoon and for another two hours in the evening. However, in the last three days, there are reports from Pokhara, Nepalgunj, Nawalparasi, Chitwan, Birgunj, and Janakpur that several dozen political activists and student leaders were arrested. Their whereabouts are not known. Given the trend, it can be safely assumed that arrests of political leaders must have taken place in many of the remote districts around the country.

Reports are available from very reliable sources of the torture of the students from Prithvinarayan Campus, Pokhara. Fifty-eight students, out of the hundreds who were peacefully protesting against the king’s coup inside the campus premises on February 1 were arrested by the RNA personnel and taken to the nearby army barrack the same day. Their hands were tied at the back and all of them were blindfolded. They were then severely beaten by the army personnel with fists, boots, sticks, and butts of rifles. Then they were made to sleep inside a “trench” without any bedding, outside in the open, for the whole night. They reportedly had bruises on their body, which have been photographed.

There are very credible reports that the army fired tear gas shells and rubber bullets inside the campus premises from a helicopter. The National Human Rights Commission has confirmed that it has received the reports of over 250 pro-democracy students being brutally beaten inside the campus, a helicopter being used to fire tear gas shells and bullets against the protestors, and a few dozen of the protestors being taken to the army barrack and tortured. An NHRC official is quoted by an international newspaper as saying that they plan to conduct a fact-finding mission regarding this, but said that ‘it is too dangerous for them to conduct a field visit at this time’. One international newspaper has described the Pokhara repression as ‘Nepal’s Tinanmen Square’.

More draconian directives issued by the king on February 6, 2005

“His Majesty the king” in accordance with Clause 7 of Article 115 of the Constitution of Nepal 1990 has issued various orders.

According to a notice published today by “His Majesty’s Press Secretariat”, travel, buying and selling of assets and stay in the country are allowed but that should not disturb the sovereignty, integrity, peace and security and should not have adverse impact on the state of emergency. The order has also mentioned that the local administration can prohibit the aforementioned activities if needed.

According to the order, if “His Majesty’s government” feels it necessary then the regional administrator, chief district officer or any assigned official can temporarily or permanently transfer ownership of any tangible and intangible asset after due compensation. The order has also mentioned that activities like seminars, gatherings, meetings and interactions, which do not affect the sovereignty, integrity, peace and security of the Kingdom of Nepal and do not go against the state of emergency, can be organised in a predetermined venue, after receiving prior permission from the regional administrator, chief district officer or any assigned official. According to the order, “His Majesty’s government” can appoint, transfer, depute, delegate authority or place appointments in vacant posts, temporarily to government employees for the period of the state of emergency. The employees of the “Secretariat of His Majesty’s government”, ministries or the departments under it, and other offices or the offices under “His Majesty’s Government” are prohibited from setting up any kind of organisation having political affiliation, and any such existing organisation should stop all activities, that affect the sovereignty, integrity or peace and security of the Kingdom of Nepal, the order says.

The order also prohibits making any direct or indirect public comment regarding the work of the security agencies that could “affect the morale of the security agencies”.

During the state of emergency, if the security personnel, security official or any assigned official feels it necessary, then he can monitor or ban the use of telephone, radio, fax, television, email or any other form of electronic media. According to the notice, anyone violating the aforementioned points, disobeying orders, or non-compliance to the same thereof, can be immediately put under house arrest and action may be initiated against such persons. The notice has also stated that whatever is mentioned in the order will be as per the order and points not covered by the order will be as per existing laws.