KATMANDU DOIN’S
For many year I have wanted to have a good reason for starting a piece off with the word “Katmandu”. This is, about as close as I’ll get to doing so, I suppose, so I’d best make the most of it while I can.
Katmandu, in case you are lost, is in Nepal. In fact, Katmandu - more properly Kath-mandu - is the capital city of Nepal . The small nation is enclosed by India on the west and south sides and by China on the north
and east and it is no stranger to conflict and disturbance.
Kathmandu is a city I have long thought to be one of the few exotic locales remaining. The borders of Nepal have always seemed somewhat indefinite in relation to its neighbors, too, which has caused
friction over the ages and that has resulted in numerous stories many of which have gone untold.
Nepal is, once again, in the news right now because the nation has a ”terrorist” problem which has plagued them for over six years. They want to rid themselves of this problem once and for all, and now, we find,
India has decided to help them do so.
The rebels disrupting life in Nepal are a Maoist extremist group intent on bringing communism to Nepal. In 1951 the king, himself, took over the government which had been in the Rama family from 1846 and
declared the country to be a constitutional monarchy. The Rama family had seen to it that a member of the family was always the prime Minister and that pattern changed at once. Since that time Nepal has become more and
more acknowledged by the rest of the world as a worthy nation.
In 1990 a pro-democracy movement forced King Birendra to lift a prevailing ban on political parties and to appoint an opposition leader to head the interim government as prime minister. The liberal Nepali
Congress Party won in the first free election for a decade. The Communist Party made a strong showing, and a small but growing Maoist guerrilla force has been seeking to overthrow the government ever since.
Corruption haunted the government offices of many years, Parliament was a fragile structure of weak alliances and coalitions, but ineffective. In 1999, the political scene changed when the majority of seats went
to the Neptali Congress Party and a famous Neptali freedom fighter who was imprisoned for fourteen years by the King’s government, was named Prime Minister.
Nepal became a subject of international news. June 1, 2002 when the popular King Birendra was shot and killed by his equally popular son Crown Prince Dipendra. Seldom has a nation experienced such as
laughter. Angered at the family’s disapproval of his choice of a bride, the Crown P
nce Dipendra also killed his mother several of his family, then shot himself. I find it interesting that the official crowned Dipendra King while he remained in a coma from his self-inflicted gunshot and then, on June 4th, Prince
Gyanendra, the younger brother of Birendra, was named king. Just what this had to do with the maintenance of the blood line ,I have not yet figured out, but there has to be a logical reason for such actions.
The Maoists agreed to a cease fire in July, but peace talks broke down. They launched a series of deadly attacks and Nepal’s King Gyanendra declared a state of emergency in November.
It has not been made clear if Nepal asked for help or if India realizes that a strong communist force so near their own border was a potential threat to their own well-being. Thus far, they have provided two helicopters and
numerous transportation units and arms and such aid is to be expanded.
Nepal is now a among those nations combating terrorist activities and help from India may well be the sensible way to solve the problem.
Often we seem to get the idea that only the United States of America provides assistance to other nations, and it is good to see India - the world’s largest democracy - helping Nepal - one of the world’s poorest
nations - crush their terrorist enemy.
A.L.M. August 24, 2002 [c-702wds]
