No respite for Kathmandu streets

pic from www.daylife.com

There is no respite for Kathmanduites... the maoists at the end of their marathon politburo sessions have vowed to continue on with protests... which right now runs at around 3 to 4 general strikes a week or so... Daily life in Kathmandu is getting more and more complicated.

-------------- from www.nepalnews.com

The marathon meeting of the politburo of the Unified CPN (Maoist) concluded on Monday, deciding to go for a 'national government'.

"We had serious discussions on the current problems in the country as well as the party's internal issues during the politburo meeting. We were successful in reaching the right conclusion and consolidating the party unity," party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal at the end of the meeting.

He said the politburo has decided to push for a national government in place of the "unethically and unconstitutionally established" government of 22 parties. A government, he said, should be formed as early as possible.

Saying that the 'reactionaries' are trying to derail the peace process and keep the Constituent Assembly inactive, Dahal said the party has vowed to stand up to the 'conspiracies' of reactionaries. He also said the party would continue agitations unless the President's 'unconstitutional' move is rectified.

The politburo meeting, which ran for two weeks at the office of the Maoist sister organisations at Koteshwor, passed Dahal's 19-page long political document with minor amendment.

Senior leader Mohan Baidya and his hardliner loyalists had criticised Dahal's document for deviating from the long-held policy of 'people's revolt' to establish 'people's republic'. However, they did not bring up separate proposal to counter Dahal's policy document.

It was the first meeting of the Maoist politburo after the party's exit from the government.

----------------------

TRAVEL ADVISORY: Avoid cities as much as possible (as this is where the protests are), do pad your trips with some extra days, as there could be delays due to the hassle factor... also the monsoon has set in, so delays are even more inevitable. Once you are out of the cities, you are fine.

From the frying pan to the fire

pic: not from any of these strikes, but taken off the net, to show how students block roads

It used to be the Maoist who were terrorizing life in the far outreaches of the country, going through villages, demanding food and shelter for the "people's movement" from poor farmers in the village, forcing young people to join the "People's army" etc.

All that, in comparison to what life is in Nepal today, is nothing. Today the Maoist Affliliated organisations are the ones who are wreaking havoc in the country. The latest is a systematic shutdown of groups of districts in the country, played like an organ.

When will the Nepalese people ever realise that the ukhan "aphnei khutta ma bancharo hannu" is applicable here. All this shutdowns, these strikes, are only affecting us, the people of Nepal. Isn't that utter stupidity?

Anyways, I have a purpose here, and that is to give a travel advisory.

TRAVEL ADVISORY: Your trip can be hampered by these systematic shutdowns of districts, specially if your travel takes you through them. There is no knowing when the next shutdown is and where it will be, though a few days notice is generally there. Listen to locals

Having said that, all these "action" are still centered around important towns and cities. If your travels takes you primarily to the villages, as is usual with travel in Nepal, you are fine. Just go faster through the towns and cities, thats all!

As a foreigner, you are generally 'safer', unless you really happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The chances for this are very very very slim!

See you in the mountains!

US Travel Advisory Reviewed! Church Bombed

Ben raised a very relevant issue in another article in this blog about the US Nepal Travel Advisory being changed and the Church being bombed in Nepal. I am trying to respond here to his post which goes a bit like this:-

talk to someone in Nepal first? how about this:

"This information is current as of today, Mon Jun 01 2009 11:32:04 GMT-0400 (EDT): May 22, 2009

The Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the risks of traveling to Nepal and urges caution when traveling in country. The Department of State remains concerned about the security situation in Nepal and urges American citizens to obtain updated security information before they travel and to be prepared to change their plans on short notice. This replaces the Travel Warning for Nepal dated November 21, 2008 and updates safety and security information."

read more here.....

Here is my response.

Ben, you have rightly posted the change of the Nepal Travel Advisory from the US, and the article about the Church bombing is pertinent. But let me give a little local prespective into this.

1. The US changed the advisory as soon as the Maoist (the ones in the terrorism list of the US) stepped OUT of power... I think they were afraid that once they went out of power, they would go back to the jungle. This extortion, strikes, etc, but YCL elements has been going on for some years now. This was completely supported by the Maoists, who were in power, but the US did not worry about the travel advisory then. I guess what I am trying to tell you is that the situation is no different than a year ago, even though the US just changed their travel advisory. The extortion by the YCL is mainly targetted at Nepalese, not tourists, though on trek routes sometimes, they will request "donations" for the "cause"

Travel in Nepal is still safe for tourists, though as I always say, the hassle factor is there. Interestingly, once the Maoists have come down from power, the protests are there but lower in intensity. But this might just be a lull in the action...

2. The Church bombing was not carried out for political reasons.. this was utter stupidity from Hindu extremists (most likely, who am I to know for sure), not connected to the problems in Nepal directly at all... there are elements in Nepal and elsewhere who think that when the King was made to step down and Nepal turned republic, the chances of a Hindu kingdom on earth has been killed forever, rightly so... Nepal was the only Hindu Kingdom in the world, and revered by extremist Hindus for that. The bomb in a church is a testament of their anger, directed at a religion which was banned several years ago.

Hope this clears the air a bit.

So Advisory today would be:

1. Again, hassle factor in Nepal is there, strikes, jams etc are rampant, and come without notice... pad your trip adequately.
2. Try to get out of the city as fast as possible, the countryside is far more hassle free.
3. I will never stop saying this, listen to locals!

See you in the mountains!