High Expectation For Peace

By Sai Raj Pudasaini,

DEEPAK GAUTAM (not his real name), a small tea trader cannot have peaceful sleep these days. Physically a giant figure, he even does not want to eat and work. His face shows he is greatly worried. But it is not that he is ill or he is suffering a loss in the business. He is worried because of the Maoists? threat to his ailing father who lives in his home village in Ilam.

Story

?By now they (Maoists) called him thrice and he went to see them twice. But they did not come to the venue where they told my father to come. This time they have sent a letter with an ultimatum that he should pay them by Monday (Feb. 14), otherwise they would capture our home and land,? he narrates the story that has snatched away his sleep and hunger. His wife informed about the letter on phone on Friday.

Deepak has been in Kathmandu for about a year. He brings CTC tea from Jhapa and sells it in Kathmandu carrying it on a bicycle. His two brothers are also in Kathmandu with him. His ailing father, mother, wife and a baby son are in Ilam to look after the home and farms. But now with the increasing threat from the Maoists he is in a great confusion and is unable to decide?to bring them to Kathmandu or leave them in Ilam.

?A fortnight ago, a man came to my father telling that the Maoists wanted to see him. He went with him and stayed in a village waiting for them. But they did not come. A week after that, again two men came with the same message and my father followed them as he did earlier. But this time also the Maoists did not appear. Those who came to take my father were not Maoists and they did not know why the Maoists did not come to see him,? Deepak explains in detail.

When they did not come to meet him twice Deepak in Kathmandu and others in villages thought that someone in the name of the Maoists had tried to cheat him. But this suspicion did not last even for two days when he got a letter from the Maoists asking for Rs. 30,000. Now he has no option but to pay the demanded amount because an individual cannot oppose the Maoists as there are several incidents in which the Maoists had killed the persons who denied to pay them, or captured their assets.

The case of Deepak?s father is an example of how the Maoists extort the poor villagers. Such incidents are prevalent in almost all villages of the Kingdom. As there is no any political opposition to the Maoists, they are free to extort, abduct and torture the poor villagers at gunpoint. They force the villagers to feed them and give shelter during the night.

?Last month they came in a group carrying guns and requested me to give food and shelter for a night. They also said they should be allowed to sleep inside. I had no option and give them what they demanded. But I could not sleep throughout the night,? a teacher said on the condition of anonymity.

The teachers should also keep aside their one day?s salary for the Maoists every month besides providing them ?seasonal donation?.

But contrary to this reality the so called leaders of the Maoists never get tired of claiming that they are not extorting the people. They have been telling this lie for years and the people who have to pay them regularly do not want to disclose the fact fearing intimidation from the local Maoists. Those who have been closely observing the Maoists? extortion method claim that the local Maoists terrorists keep a large amount of the extorted money for their personal use. And there are evidences to support this claim.

?You do not have to wait long to see many of the Maoist terrorists living in their own bungalows and buildings in Birtanagar, Kathmandu and other major towns of the Kingdom,? said a security official who served for four years in Bhojpur, one of the Maoists? stronghold areas in eastern hill said.

Now with the historic Royal Proclamation, the people are hopeful that the Maoist violence will come to end soon either through dialogues or their suppression. The village people know well the terror tactics of the Maoists. Once they surrender their guns or are compelled to surrender them they won?t be able to torture the people.

?In the new situation, the Maoists, who were claming that they would talk with the King have to sit for peace dialogues to end the violence otherwise they have to suffer a complete annihilation,? Deepak Gautam believes.

Hope

The Nepalese people who have suffered a lot in the hands of the Maoists agree with Deepak?s belief. And they are now eagerly waiting to see the day when violence will be a topic of Nepalese history not their life. Also the people are ready to cooperate with the task of restoring peace.