« Yeah, I could do that, but I'm paralyzed with not caring very much | Main | np - Dee Dee Bridgewater, The Saga of Jenny »

Eight Thousand

From Malaysiakini (and only part of the story is available for non-subscribers like me), Nepal bleeds by the thousands:

But what is different this year is the sheer volume of displaced people, and the fact that they are not seasonal migrants-many are not going to return until Nepal returns to normal. It is obvious that added up, there is a massive humanitarian crisis brewing here.

The outflow of villagers from insurgency-hit mid-western districts has now reached a peak. Officials at the border police post at Nepalganj told us they counted more than 8,000 people passed through during the week Dec 4-11, the highest weekly figure that they have ever recorded.

And from The Independent, Nepal atrocities blamed on government and Maoists:

A grim picture of deaths in army custody, disappearances, torture and child guerrillas is painted in an Amnesty report on abuses during the civil war blighting the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal.

The human rights group said yesterday it believed nearly half of the 4,366 people to die in the conflict over the past year may have been killed unlawfully. It found "unprecedented levels" of human rights abuses since November 2001, when talks collapsed between the Nepalese government and the Maoist guerrillas seeking to overthrow the monarchy and establish a Communist state.

The vast majority of the victims were civilians targeted "for their real or perceived support" for the Maoists, said the report. Others were "Maoists deliberately killed after they were taken prisoner or killed instead of being arrested." Amnesty International has recorded 66 "disappearances" – including six children – in the nine months to the end of August. Some of those who disappeared recently may still be alive and in the hands of the Nepalese army; others are feared to have been killed in custody and their bodies disposed of, said the 21-page report, Nepal: A Deepening Human Rights Crisis.

[. . .] Amnesty found abuses on both sides. It says Maoist forces killed an estimated 800 civilians considered "enemies of the revolution", with politicians and teachers a particular target. Amnesty accuses the guerrillas of torturing and murdering captives and taking hostages for ransom. The report says the Maoists regularly recruit children into their ranks, operating a policy of "one family, one member" in areas under their control. It says children are used in combat to help provide ammunition or evacuate wounded. Amnesty says it spoke to one 14-year-old girl who described children receiving weapons training at night after studying at school in the daytime.

Added a link to the report at Amnesty International's site, if you wanted to know more.

There's also a write-up at Nepalnews.com, again summarizing the AI report.

I have several theories about why this particular humanitarian crisis is pretty much ignored in the States, but none of them are very flattering to anyone.

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.uppity-negro.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/491

Comments

It's a civil uprising. I have a gut feeling that nothing nastier than went on here during the civil war is going on there. I think Ferris Bueler's attitude about tests on european socialism about sums it up for me.

/blocks qoutes from jews about no one else left to come after except me i the end

How could your theories reflect well on anyone? This is yet another embarrassment for humanity as a species. Misanthropy is a fully justified philosophical position.

Embarrassments or not, atrocities are learning experiences for all of us. Genocide and ther urge to opress the other exist. It's a fact wether you're armenian, black, algerian, jewish, bosnian, ojibwe, lakota sioux or nepalese. These things simply happen from time to time. The actual denial that these events ever happened is just as dangereous as the events themselves. My current favorite would have to be a cabal of jewish scholars who claim that anyone who says they have suffered from a genocidal campaign is an anti-semite because genocide has only been attempted on jews. Sweet.

Historical footnotes for fun and pleasure:
-The first successful colony in the new world were abandoned black slaves at the mouth of the mississippi river.

- The first american to die in the civil war was black and native. Crispus Attucks rocks.

Hart, last time I mentioned this, Tim took the opportunity to bring up the equally overlooked conflict in Israel, with special attention given to the depravity of the Palestinians. Which, you know, comes up so rarely in the pro-Palestinian, antisemitic U.S. media.

uppity-shinob, think you mean the Revolutionary War for Crispus Attucks. Which I guess was technically a civil war. . .

Given my opposition to all war, and any congressional declarations or Executive Orders requiring my participation in it - if misanthropy doesn't work for you, or feigned empathy privately displayed to your propaganda box, please consider abject apathy.

Apathy sounds like a good choice.

How about I start with not much caring about your opinion?

thanks for the context correction Aaron. Gramps always referred to it as the first civil war. I've been brainwashed by oral tradition.

Sounds about right, and in return, why should I care?

Tim, you needn't.

Then again, I'm not posting at your site.

Not much reason for you to post here, either.

This is not a suggestion.

uppity-shinob, "brainwashed" is such an ugly term. . .

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)