Army still using schools as barracks - activists

Local activists have severely criticised the government and army for continuing to billet soldiers and security force personnel in school premises around the country, despite the current ceasefire. “The children are being exposed to uniformed soldiers with their weapons and their playgrounds are filled with barbed wire, trenches and defensive sandbags,” said Sanjaya Aryal, coordinator of local NGO, the National Coalition for Children as Zones of Peace (CZOP). CZOP is one of 36 child protection groups that came together on Monday in the capital, Kathmandu, to launch a report on the subject and call for the military to leave at least 12 schools. Until recently, the army has been waging a decade-long war against Maoist militants that has cost more than 11,000 lives. Schools have often been on the front line in the conflict as they are often chosen as easily defendable barracks by soldiers based in government-controlled towns. “Schools are a zone of peace and all responsible authorities and parties have to leave the children alone,” said Bhola Dahal from the Nepal office of Save the Children - Norway. According to the report, “Ongoing presence of security force and activities in schools”, pupils are routinely punished by soldiers on guard at the main gates if they fail to show identification. “We want the government to take steps immediately without any further delay so that the children can be safe and attend their class without any fear,” said Kundan Aryal from influential local rights group, Insec. An interim government was formed by the seven leading political parties in April following the end of direct rule by Nepalese monarch King Gyanendra. It has had three rounds of talks with Maoist leaders leading to a decision to formulate an interim constitution in two weeks, form a new interim government to include the Maoists in a month and hold elections for the constituent assembly in six months. The child protection consortium said that the Maoists also had to clean up their act and stop abducting school children and organising political indoctrination programmes in many schools. In the last decade more than 462 children have been killed and over 1,000 injured at the hands of both the government security forces and the Maoists, according to data by local NGO, Child Workers in Nepal (CWIN).