Nepal’s forsaken citizens: the internally displaced- - - - - - - - DELETE

At the break of dawn, 65-year-old Mankumari Bista begins her day of hard labour at a stone quarry that pays as little as US $2 a day for eight hours work. Running a high fever, Mankumari grinds stones with her fingers, grossly swollen by frequent accidents with the unwieldy hammer she is forced to use. “It’s a difficult life. But what choice do we have?” asked Mankumari who has taken refuge in Musikot, the district headquarters of Rukum, nearly 650 km northwest of the capital, Kathmandu. Four years ago, Mankumari and five members of her family were forced to leave their home after her husband, an ordinary farmer, was shot dead by Maoist rebels when he refused to join them and pay “taxes” to the movement, which has been waging a guerilla war against the state since 1996. Mankumari is just one of hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Rukum. Those displaced in the town say that the government in Kathmandu and international humanitarian agencies are neglecting their plight. The situation of IDPs in the region is well documented. Many said they felt exhausted giving interviews to government officials, researchers and journalists who often come to visit them. According to a leading national human rights group, Insec, there are around 1,000 IDPs in Musikot alone. They hail from 43 villages in the district and say they fled after being caught up in numerous clashes between the rebels and security forces in their remote villages. Ongoing Maoist threats, intimidation and extortion also forced many of the group to leave their homes for the uncertainty of internal exile. The Maoists control about 80 percent of rural areas in Nepal and Rukum is one region where their presence is at its strongest. Local people told IRIN that the insurgents administer about 90 percent of the district by taxing them on everything from land ownership and housing to farm production and livestock. The security forces - as in most district headquarters in the country’s hill and mountain areas - have no jurisdiction in the wider region and are limited to Musikot town. “We’re getting poorer every day. For how long can we live like this? We’re refugees in our own country,” said Balaram Buda, a 66-year-old farmer, who blamed both the Maoists and the army for making his family live in misery and poverty. He and his elderly wife constantly have to worry where to find money to feed 10 members of their family after they lost their 28-year-old son, Bhim Prakash, killed in the crossfire during an encounter between the army and rebels. Three years ago, he was forced by the army to travel with them to a Maoist area as their porter and village guide and he was killed when the patrol was ambushed. In the capital, reports of the growing number of IDPs being created by the ongoing conflict are piling up, say activists, who have called for much more support for this marginalised and often forgotten group. Although food and clothes are being made available to some IDP camps in Banke and Surkhet districts, near Nepalganj city, 500 km west of Kathmandu, those in isolated areas are receiving very little support. Some international agencies studying displacement in Nepal, including the United Nations and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), are seriously concerned about the lack of economic and social assistance being offered to displaced families. The representative of the UN Secretary-General on the rights of IDPs, Walter Kalin, said during his mission in 2005 to Nepal that the internally displaced in the country had been largely overlooked and neglected. He stressed that they were in need of protection and assistance. His study showed that IDPs suffered discrimination, inadequate food, shelter, healthcare or access to education for children. “We have given up expecting any support and now we are planning to do something for ourselves,” said Dhan Bahadur Thapa, who has, along with other elderly IDPs, started an informal group known as the Organisation for Victims of Conflict (OVC), with which they are planning to raise funds from businessmen, traders and rich farmers in Musikot. Despite their initiative, they have still not got permission from the local government administration to collect donations. Although there is no accurate estimate of the number of IDPs in the country, a report by the UN’s Inter-Agency Internal Displacement Division (IDD) during its mission to Nepal in April puts the number at around 200,000. The government, interested in playing down the impact of the conflict, says there are no more than 8,000 IDPs throughout the country. Human rights activists, especially those working in the remote villages, believe that the situation of the IDPs is becoming graver and their numbers are increasing. According to Insec’s records, over 12,000 were displaced in less than a year in 2004. Even the unilateral ceasefire announced by the Maoists in September has not stopped displacement. “Many villagers are already taking the ceasefire as an opportunity to flee their homes and settle somewhere safer where there is no armed campaign between rebels and army,” said rights worker Jeewan Khadka in Rukum. He added that the ongoing Maoist restrictions on movement of villagers has also been feeding displacement, as many rural people are tired of living under the strict rules and regulations the rebels impose in areas they control. IDPs are at risk of falling into prostitution and being exploited in the crowded labour market. According to the NGO Child Workers in Nepal (CWIN), child labourers, drawn from the growing ranks of IDPs, is widespread in agriculture and in industrial sectors such as brick-making, stone quarrying and carper weaving. A recent survey conducted by Terres de Hommes (TDH) found that many children living in IDP camps were suffering from malnutrition, diarrhoea, fever, acute respiratory illness (ARI) and skin ailments. The NGO found that the highest number of malnourished children was found in Rajhena camp, outside Nepalganj city. “The malnutrition rate and prevalence of common illnesses in small children in IDP camps … can be considered as worrying,” said the TDH report, which explained that these health problems were common among female-headed families where male relatives have moved to India for jobs. “Some of these mothers also had the added pain of having to endure gross abuses themselves or have lost their family members at the hands of the warring parties,” concluded the report. Despite such concerns, the IDPs have not received any concrete assistance. Kalin also observed that there had been no coherent assistance and protection response either from the government, or from national and international organisations. “The issue of the IDPs is slowly losing attention both by the NGOs and the media. Even the IDPs have lost all their hope for getting any support,” explained Khadka.