Nepal’s "Orange Revolution" Has Rain Break
April, 18, 2005
Kathmandu, Nepal: Overnight the sky above Kathmandu and much of the Kingdom was filled with beautiful displays of
lighting and earth shaking thunder. The cold winds falling from the Himalayas clashed with the warm steamy air rushing
up from the Indian sub-continent and bathed the country for 15 hours in cool rain.
The rain greeted the sunrise and despite being the 13th day of the bandha (strike) called by the 7-Party Alliance (SPA)
and supported by the Maoist insurgents CPN (M), and civil-society from; journalists and medical professionals to
government workers, bank employees, hotel and restaurant employees, students and their professors, human rights
activists, party supporters, disabled and elderly associations, and even families of Security Force officials who have
carried out attacks on the general population, there was finally some traffic as people rushed to buy what they could
before shops and vegetable stalls ran completely out of stock.
Salt, medicine, every vegetable, kerosene, LP-gas, petrol and almost every item necessary for daily life is in short
supply. What is available has, in some cases, more that trebled in price, leaving thousands to move nearer to
starvation.
In desperation the Royal government has offered $48 for drivers and $21 to their assistants to join RNA (Royal Nepal
Army) convoys and break the SPA strike and the Maoist blockade of the city to deliver desperately needed supplies. No
goods have been reported delivered.
Most of the streets and endless alleyways of the ancient Silk-Road Capital have, for 12 days, been filled with the
sounds of Nepal’s “Orange Revolution”.
Like Ukraine’s Orange Revolution of 2004 the Pro-Democracy demonstrations, estimated to be 1-million or more strong,
have not responded to the brutal killings, disappearances, tear-gassing, baton beatings, firing of water cannon and
rubber and live bullets with like violence. Young demonstrators have burned tires and hurled rocks but there have been
no retaliatory shootings, knife attacks, or reported grave injury to any Security Forces.
The international community including India, UK and the US who armed and trained the Nepalese Security Forces have
condemned the brutal and inhuman attacks on unarmed civilians participating in peaceful demonstrations.
Major news agencies report three Human Rights organizations; Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the
International Commission of Jurists have called for “targeted sanctions” against those responsible for human rights
violations today in Geneva, Switzerland at an international meeting called by the Swiss government to investigate the
human rights conditions in Nepal and singled out those Nepalese Officials responsible for gross-human rights violations.
Those named in the call to be refused entry into any other country and have their personal assets outside Nepal seized,
included:
King Gyanendra
Vice Chair of the Council of Ministers, Tulsi Giri
Justice Minister, Niranjan Tapha
Home Minister, Kamal Thapa
Information Minister, Shrish Shamsher Rana
Army Chief, General Pyar Jung Thapa
Inspector General of Police, Shayam Bhakta Tapa, and
Inspector General of Armed Police Force, Shahbir Thapa
Rumors, ahead of the mass rally called by the SPA for Thursday, have the King naming a former PM to head a “fantasy
government” as put by a food employee.
“The next PM will not be named by a failed King, but by the people.”
Nepal’s Orange Revolution, if successful, will possibly be the largest non-violent democratic revolution in recorded
history. The whole world watches as the rain stops and Kathmandu braces for another day.
*************
D. Michael Van De Veer-Freelance Journalist
Contributor to UnitedWeBlog for a Democratic Nepal,
& Pacifica’s Free Speech Radio News.
Member South Asian Journalist Association (SAJA)
Host OUT OF THE BOX KKCR-FM www.kkcr.fm
P.O.Box 21218, Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal