Nepal's King Cracks Down on Politics and News Media By Amy Waldman in Kathmandu The New York Times | 8 February 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/08/international/asia/08nepal.html?oref=login&pagewanted=all&position=
Instead of the usual spicy mix of current affairs and politics, the subject of Radio Sagarmatha's talk show on Saturday night was as bland as rice. In fact, the subject was rice: the differences, as explained by a scientist, between golden, wild and other varieties. That was the only topic the independent Nepali FM station felt safe to discuss. "Normally I don't do that kind of program," a 31-year-old journalist at the station said, laughing nervously as a soldier listened. When the soldier - one of six lounging around the station - moved off, the smile fell away. "Our hands are tied," the journalist said. Six days ago Nepal's king ended the country's 15-year experiment with democracy and took power for himself, imposing a state of emergency and suspending a host of civil liberties, including freedom of expression. Nepalis have been facing something between fear and a farce since then, adjusting to a combination of royal rule and martial law. Those in politics and the news media feel particularly under siege. In a televised address last Tuesday morning, King Gyanendra said he was taking power for three years because the country's fractious political parties had failed to hold elections or bring Maoist rebels to peace talks. As he spoke, phone lines and Internet connections were being cut, political and student leaders were being detained and soldiers were arriving at news organizations' offices to take on their new role as censors. Nepalis now have no freedom of assembly, expression or opinion; no right to information, property or privacy; and no protection from preventive detention. The government has banned any criticism of the king's action for six months, and any public comment that could affect the morale of the security agencies. Widespread international condemnation has done nothing to slow the arrest of political and student activists, with the military insisting that the detentions are necessary to prevent protests against the king. The new government, installed Wednesday, acknowledges having 27 politicians under house arrest or in detention, but human rights activists say dozens more people, many of them student leaders, have "disappeared" into custody. Those who have not been arrested have gone underground or to India. A committee of military and civilian officials that meets daily to review the communications blackout has begun to allow local phone access for a couple of unscheduled hours each day. Soldiers have been pulled back from newspaper offices, but only because editors have "assured us there would be self-censorship," said Brig. Gen. Dipak K. Gurung, the spokesman for the Royal Nepal Army. They did so with some encouragement: the king's press secretary told some editors last week that he would not be able to help if the military decided to "disappear" them for a few hours, according to one editor who spoke on condition of anonymity. All of that is necessary, General Gurung said, to stop the publication and broadcasting of Maoist announcements and propaganda, and reports that sap the army's morale. "In the name of democracy, in the name of freedom, they really got out of control," he said of the news media. "If they are cooperating," he said, referring to the editors, "there's no reason they should be afraid." Until 2001 Nepal's military was a largely ceremonial force numbering 45,000. Now it is approaching 85,000, has the central role in battling the insurgency and, as of last Tuesday, a crucial role in enforcing the state of emergency and overseeing the country's civil administration. Analysts and news reports say the king views Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who took power in a coup in 1999, as a role model, and the two men apparently share a belief in the military's inherent efficiency. General Gurung said senior military officers were already calling in officials from ministries and government-owned corporations for meetings. "They have to produce results or come up with a good explanation," the general said of the civilian officials. Whether road repair or kerosene distribution, he said, "We will get things done." He blamed the country's political parties for squandering and pilfering resources and distorting the bureaucracy with political pressures. It is a sentiment widely shared among Nepalis, who wrested democracy from their king in 1990 only to find themselves saddled with corrupt and feckless democrats. That fact, as much as the communications blackout or fear of the military, helps explain why Katmandu residents have not yet taken to the streets to protest the king's actions. Human rights groups said Monday that they planned to stage the first open show of defiance with a gathering on Thursday outside a complex housing the prime minister's office and Parliament, Reuters reported. But with communications difficult, it was not clear how many people would join the protest. People here say they are desperate for peace and security, and fed up with Maoist blockades of the capital and regular protests by political parties. They are, therefore, willing to give King Gyanendra a chance. "We gave those other guys 13 years," Bijay Amatya, the sales and marketing manager for Yeti Travels, said of the political parties. "Why can't we give the king three?" That does not mean Mr. Amatya is a happy man these days. With no Internet or phone links, he cannot communicate with the outside world, meaning he has no idea whether foreigners who booked visits will show up or not until he sends a car to the airport. It is only one of many economically damaging effects of the king's actions. Banks cannot do "swift code" money transfers. Businesses cannot reorder supplies. Sick people cannot call ambulances. To justify his draconian approach, the king will have to prove that he can end, either by defeating the insurgents militarily or bringing them to peace talks, a Maoist insurgency that will mark its 10th anniversary on Feb. 13. "One hopes he has a secret weapon or plan or deal," said Kanak Mani Dixit, the editor of Himal Khabarpatrika, a biweekly newsmagazine. "If he doesn't, he will not be able to deliver and he will have very little time." Analysts and diplomats express concern that with a news blackout, the army, which already has a poor human rights record, will be free to pursue a reign of terror in the countryside. "There's a danger that anybody who's anti-king will be called a Maoist and treated like a Maoist," said Keith Bloomfield, the British ambassador to Nepal. General Gurung, the army spokesman, said the forces would be held accountable for human rights violations, although he conceded that because of the news blackout it would be difficult to know whether any abuses took place. There is also the possibility that the country's political parties, furious at the king's crackdown, will throw their support to the Maoists, whose brutal rebellion aims ultimately at a one-party state. One member of the central committee of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist), who is underground, said his party's top three leaders were under house arrest and 10 to 12 other leaders, along with some 200 active workers across the country, were in police custody. "Right now our enemy is the monarchy," he said. "So Maoists and all the political parties need to be unified against the monarchy." He, like several people interviewed for this article, are not identified because of the new government orders and the risk of detention. For now, though, Mr. Bloomfield and others conceded, the king seems to have won. All of the community radio stations that sprang up in the 1990's are locked up, playing only music or discussing things like rice. The BBC's popular Nepali news service has been stopped, and Netra K. C., its reporter in the western city of Nepalganj, has been detained, according to human rights activists. Newspapers have been reduced to editorializing about safely banal subjects, like the weather or clean socks, or resorting to metaphor to make their case. "The sudden epidemic of tree-felling along Katmandu's streets is drastic, misguided and not consonant with the needs of the population," began an editorial last week in the weekly Nepali Times. It ended: "Because the damage has been done, can we ask the concerned authority to promptly correct the move and bring back greenery?" The paper's editor, Kunda Dixit, said journalists of his generation had faced similar restrictions before democracy was introduced. They learned then to weigh every word, to write between the lines, he said, but in the intervening years grew accustomed to being free. "I've unlearned how to be guarded," Mr. Dixit said at the end of an interview. "If I've said anything subversive, please take it out." ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Meet the McDonald�s� Lincoln Fry get free digital souvenirs, Web-only video and bid on the Lincoln Fry prop charity auction. http://us.click.yahoo.com/RUJaMB/fV0JAA/Zx0JAA/uTGrlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> �������������������������������������������������������� Members of the ZESTMedia list exchange news and views about the media in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan. 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