MEETING SUPPOSED TERRORISTS
6 07 2007This happened in 2003.
I always wanted to write but at the time this happened my journalistic antennae were not very sharp. In fact, they still aren’t now, the things that amaze me are rarely the things that get into the papers. This is only one of many many things that happened when I was in that country.
I was in Nepal doing voluntary work, building a school, somewhere similar to this…
The village was around 12,500 feet, around 4000 metres.
At the time (2003) the civil war in Nepal was in full swing. the army/royalists are bastards. The maoists/rebels arent a great deal better.
The standard scenario is that the rebels turn up in your house at night and demand your rice and food and pressgang any children you may have into their army. However, there are spies on both sides in every village street or town. So, two weeks later the army turn up and arrest you for helping the rebels even though you had no choice in the matter. They are stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea in that country.
I made a point of trying to interview some of the rebels, which I really shouldn’t have. I should have from the standpoint of trying to get to the truth but I really did put the people I was living with at unnecessary risk and in some ways I wish I hadn’t done it.
Before me, not many westerners had got to speak to the Nepali rebels and it took a lot of work but I managed it. They came to speak to me and a friend.
It was very strange, the guy was about the same age as I was at the time (about 25) but i could see cold murder in his eyes. He was telling me how 75 of his friends had been killed by the army and by god was he going to take revenge. He meant it.
So the rebels are supposedly maoists. However, they are not supported by China in any form. They have more to do with some of the factions in India but they are still autonomous and don’t have a great deal to do with them either. And they arent really maoists they are straight up communists.
Interviewing the 25 year old guy, he also had his henchman with him, or better put, his henchboy. A 14 year old pointing a rifle at me the whole time I was speaking to him. For the first 10 minutes or so this completely freaked me out but after that I got a hold of it and figured he wasn’t going to shoot me unless I gave him a reason to and I certainly wasn’t going to do that.
When I was talking to the guy I was trying to ask him interesting questions but every answer I got back was a textbook marx communist party manifesto answer…example…
Q. 35% of the maoist soldiers are women. That is very unusual in a hindu country like nepal. Why?
A. The revolution is here to save everyone regardless of class, gender etc etc et fucking cetera
So, after the initial shock of the gun thing I actually started to get bored. I kept telling him that I had read the communist party manifesto and that I wanted to know what he thought and not what that said because I already knew what that said…
Incidentalluy, I am only telling part of this story. After about half an hour of this I was bored because he had clearly decided he didn’t trust me and he wasn’t going to say anything so I decided ok, last question, fuck it - go for it.
What is the last question you would expect a group of guerillas like that to answer?
I asked it.
Q. Where do you get your guns?
and he told me! straight up.
Rebel dude - “they’re British”
Me - “huh”?
It turns out that in the interest of fairness britain sells guns and weapons to India AND Pakistan. Some people there want to make a quick buck and so out the back door people in both armies are happy to sell to whoever comes calling and the Nepali rebels obviously wanted guns so they were able to buy them.
Now the morals of this story are completely up in the air and the morality of the civil war in that country is completely up in the air too but if I was a bastard I could have made a career for myself from that story (BRITISH GUNS RACKET etc) but I didn’t.
This story could have been a great deal longer.
You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din. Much braver too. I’ve often wondered about that situation over there. All I know of it is from the press. Nice to get a little insight, sad as it is. Thanks for your comment over at my new place. I’m linking you up. Best,…Neil
neil, if you had an email available you might know me. hint hint.
Thank you for visiting my blog.
I have a problem at my blog with a certain rightist troll. I mistakenly responded to him. My commentors are 99% good people.
I also want you to know my blog, is defined as an anti-Stalinist coalition. One of the writers is Argentine anarchist Marie Trigona. Several anarchists comment at my blog.
Very interesting post about Nepal. Now the Maoists are wearing suits and ties, and are the establishment. I wouldn’t be a socialist, if socialism was only Maoism.
Maoism is an extreme form of Stalinism, believing in peasantry and intellectuals as leading the revolution. Maoists believe in 2 stage revolution, the first capitalist and second socialist. Under Maoist leadership, the 2nd stage never comes.
I will link to this blog.
renegade dude. thanks for the interest. please link. everyone has problems with trolls.
i will certainly look at your blog in the coming weeks (although i shall be out and about tomorrow)
one of the things that happens here is that sometimes i meet rent-a-cause protestors who are giving out ’support the nepali maoist’ literature. the first thing i do is say ‘hello, how you doing?’ in nepali. they all know hello, cos its the same in india - namaste.
but say how you doing? kasto chha? then they get confused. and i say ‘exactly’. dont hand out thefliers if you dont know what you are talking about.
i hate rent a cause people.
That’s interesting. Thanks for the pointer.
Wow. Great story.
The US will sell guns to anyone too.
Poor folks… Like most people, they mostly just want to be left alone by whomever is in charge in the cities. Especially if they aren’t getting any of the benefits that I’m sure they’ve been promised.
That pic is really beautiful, btw.
I can’t help wondering how well the School is doing? Have you any contact any longer with your host family or someone there who keeps you up to date?
not really, when i was there there was no roads up to it or electricity or anything so communications were a bit difficult
Amazing story. It’s the most difficult thing to do - reign in the curiosity when in dangerous and unfamiliar territory. There are some cultural norms that will never be understood by a superior posture. I’m sure he wouldn’t open up more as soon as he knew you wouldn’t fund his cause. You’re lucky he didn’t take you hostage for ransom.
funnily enough the only tourist that the maoists ever captured was michael palin of monty python and travel programme fame.
they apparently hit a frenchman and then took him to the doctor. this was because he wanted to walk somewhere and they wouldnt let him and he tried to walk past etc
i also heard that they take money off you for trekking permits in their areas and then give you a receipt saying they will give you a refund when they have control of the country!
I was once on a plane with a guy that bought and sold fish all around the world. I asked him what he thought was something that all people shared in common. He said “people want a better life for their children and to be left alone”. I think he is right.
Really interesting story.
I don’t know where you got the idea that I had been a soldier. I am actually anti-military in every way. People are against welfare because it supports unproductive people and I feel that the military is not only unproductive but also destructive and less deserving of tax money than welfare.
sorry, flimsy. i can’t remember why i thought that.
I dont think British provide gun to nepali rebellion..
i don’t think they do directly. i can only go on what he told me.
I briefly travelled through Nepal in 2005 and observed the weapons being used by the royalist army in the foothills. Its a mixed bag but seems predominantly WW2 in origins. Id imagine the maoists were equipped with similar, supporting his response. Britain equipped Indian troops during their part of the Second World War, stands to reason that these monetary valuable objects were then sold on to whatever market presents itself. The weapons used will have been British, just very old.
the british weapons have always been there in nepal police and army, its just that the rebels captured them as they took over countless police and army camps. the rebels began with gun-powdered old fashioned guns ..they could have bought cheap prototype handmade weapons from india, slowly they got the .303 enfield rifles from their victory over the nepal police and armed police forces.. now they have better weapons than the police force…
i think nepal is a beautiful place and i would like to go there some day.
http://www.raonline.ch/pages/story/np/mao16B01T.html
If you cann’t click the link above, copy and paste it to your address bar.
This should give you the head up on how those weapons are coming to Nepal and from where.
hi iam nepali