lördag 16 januari 2010
onsdag 13 januari 2010
Yak cigaretts, electricity and strike
-Cha, masaga ek batta yak curot cha!
"Yes, I will have a packet of yak cigaretts". Language courses are always fun. Not sure if this is a useful sentence to learn in Nepali but somebody thoughs so so there you go. Wednesday in Kathmandu, I am finding a pace and routine that works here: wake up and check the daily electricity saving scheme which changes every day.
Today it was off between 10 am-14 pm(and ones more during the evening, havn't checked yet) which meant that even though breakfast was taken in my down jacket and wooly hat there was plenty of time for the chef to cook the food before it got dark in the kitchen and the music stopped. Northern Indian breakfast with puffed fried bread, curry with green peas and potatoes, curd from heaven and a bucket of hot coffee as the sun slowly crept into the court yard where me and the family were huddling and defrosted as the morning sun came out. Not a bad way to start the day.
I believe I also encountered my first maoist demo today, a sit in and blockade at a nearby restaurant or rather IN a local restaurant demanding minumun salary for the staff, a shared system for the added 13 % tax that appears on your bill. Among other things. Perceived youngish men and women blocking the enterance to the establishment wearing black bandanas and smiling faces, a part of the political matrix of Nepal these days.
"Yes, I will have a packet of yak cigaretts". Language courses are always fun. Not sure if this is a useful sentence to learn in Nepali but somebody thoughs so so there you go. Wednesday in Kathmandu, I am finding a pace and routine that works here: wake up and check the daily electricity saving scheme which changes every day.
Today it was off between 10 am-14 pm(and ones more during the evening, havn't checked yet) which meant that even though breakfast was taken in my down jacket and wooly hat there was plenty of time for the chef to cook the food before it got dark in the kitchen and the music stopped. Northern Indian breakfast with puffed fried bread, curry with green peas and potatoes, curd from heaven and a bucket of hot coffee as the sun slowly crept into the court yard where me and the family were huddling and defrosted as the morning sun came out. Not a bad way to start the day.
I believe I also encountered my first maoist demo today, a sit in and blockade at a nearby restaurant or rather IN a local restaurant demanding minumun salary for the staff, a shared system for the added 13 % tax that appears on your bill. Among other things. Perceived youngish men and women blocking the enterance to the establishment wearing black bandanas and smiling faces, a part of the political matrix of Nepal these days.
lördag 9 januari 2010
Post war for young maoists combatants
Sunday in Kathmandu and apart from the banana carrying bikesalesman and a few other eager entrepreneurs in the streets in the tourist area Thamel, Kathmandu is closed. I grab The Himalayan Times, one of the English dailies that are on offer and read that '161 disqualified PLA fighters are already out'. PLA is the Maoists Peoples Liberation Army who since the peace agreement 2006 have had x-combatants in a UN guarded camp Dudhouli south east of Kathmandu. The disqualified fighters are mainly those who joined or were encouraged or otherwise recruited into the maoist army when they were still underage, some of them as young as 16.
According to UNMIN 4000 combattants fell into the catagory of being disqualified and last thursday the outgoing combatants were given the identity card given by the UN after withdrawing their PLA identity cards. These ID's in turn will provide package aid depending on the combatant. A set of clothes in a bag, 10, 000 rupees($150)was givien by the Division Commander from the government peace fund and an additional 12, 000 rupees will be given from a fund collected from the combatants who are still to saty in the cantonement.
There has been hope in the camp that there would be an opportunity to be join or be incooperated into the Nepali Army but there seem to no chance of this. The thorny issue of what to to with a former group of combatants that have fought in an armed conflict against the state is a complicated issue, as is the integration plan offered by the Nepali state.Vocational and eduacational offers are available but not always viable as many hail far from an educational facility to match the offer.
According to UNMIN 4000 combattants fell into the catagory of being disqualified and last thursday the outgoing combatants were given the identity card given by the UN after withdrawing their PLA identity cards. These ID's in turn will provide package aid depending on the combatant. A set of clothes in a bag, 10, 000 rupees($150)was givien by the Division Commander from the government peace fund and an additional 12, 000 rupees will be given from a fund collected from the combatants who are still to saty in the cantonement.
There has been hope in the camp that there would be an opportunity to be join or be incooperated into the Nepali Army but there seem to no chance of this. The thorny issue of what to to with a former group of combatants that have fought in an armed conflict against the state is a complicated issue, as is the integration plan offered by the Nepali state.Vocational and eduacational offers are available but not always viable as many hail far from an educational facility to match the offer.
fredag 8 januari 2010
The practicalities of human rights work
Today I met my first human rights defender.
He’s , however symbolic, one of the main reasons why I flew half across the world to work for free for a year. I expected to be filled with awe and respect for this man who fights so hard for justice for those who have been abused and killed in the war but strangely enough I felt nothing. This small man whos name will have to remain untold is under a 24 hour protection scheme, accompaniment, due to the threats he has received. This is one of my organisation Peace Brigade International(PBI)’s tasks, to provide so-called unarmed bodyguard protection. If this is done well, a wider space for peace for this man has been created.
Which might sound a little vague, hippyish even.
In reality it is all but vague. It means that if he can act more freely and less fearfully and continue his work of bringing offenders of human right crimes to justice without him or his family being harassed, arrested or potentially killed because there is a visible international presence like PBI, then we have done our job. So the fact is that I don’t have to feel anything. I don’t even have to like him as a person. I just have to believe that somebody should care about these human right defenders that live and work in faraway places like Nepal. Because if
nobody cared, waited outside the court rooms, police stations and jails when they took statements from victims to slowly, slowly put together files maybe these files would never be written. And if the files with facts and testimonies from nightly raids, kidnappings, torture, rape, murder and other kinds of impunity never were written that could mean that all those actions that for those of us that find these acts appalling and morally wrong and we have little desire to experience were indirectly sanctioned. So no, I don’t have to feel anything. But I do have to
do something.
He’s , however symbolic, one of the main reasons why I flew half across the world to work for free for a year. I expected to be filled with awe and respect for this man who fights so hard for justice for those who have been abused and killed in the war but strangely enough I felt nothing. This small man whos name will have to remain untold is under a 24 hour protection scheme, accompaniment, due to the threats he has received. This is one of my organisation Peace Brigade International(PBI)’s tasks, to provide so-called unarmed bodyguard protection. If this is done well, a wider space for peace for this man has been created.
Which might sound a little vague, hippyish even.
In reality it is all but vague. It means that if he can act more freely and less fearfully and continue his work of bringing offenders of human right crimes to justice without him or his family being harassed, arrested or potentially killed because there is a visible international presence like PBI, then we have done our job. So the fact is that I don’t have to feel anything. I don’t even have to like him as a person. I just have to believe that somebody should care about these human right defenders that live and work in faraway places like Nepal. Because if
nobody cared, waited outside the court rooms, police stations and jails when they took statements from victims to slowly, slowly put together files maybe these files would never be written. And if the files with facts and testimonies from nightly raids, kidnappings, torture, rape, murder and other kinds of impunity never were written that could mean that all those actions that for those of us that find these acts appalling and morally wrong and we have little desire to experience were indirectly sanctioned. So no, I don’t have to feel anything. But I do have to
do something.
fredag 1 januari 2010
Uppdrag Nepal: Att skapa ett utrymme för fred
Idag satt jag på torget i Bhaktapur och försökte lista ut hur en nepalesisk marxist såg ut. Det var inte lätt. Anledningen till att jag ville veta detta var dagens bandha, eller marxistiska strejk. Mitt temporära hem Pagoda guest house stängde inte men ägarinnan Sharmila såg upprörd ut när hon imorse konstaterade att marxisterna gärna velat stänga hotellet också. I likhet med transporterna som idag inte rullar. Skolor och affärer utsätts enligt henne också för påtryckningar att stänga medan strejken pågår.
Jag misslyckades med att definiera några marxister.
Fast jag trodde ett tag att jag hittat ett par, ett gäng unga killar med käppar i händerna. Liknande de den nepalesiska polisstyrkan ofta bär. Sedan insåg jag att det var cricketkäppar. Ingen motsägelse i sig, marxister spelar också cricket, men politiska sympatier syns inte alltid på utsidan.
Nio år har gått sedan jag var här senast. Då mitt i den väpnade konflikten som officiellt avslutades med fredsfördraget 2006 efter tio år av stridigheter mellan den maoistisk gerillarörelsen och den nepalesiska staten. Idag, tillbaks som blivande volontär för fredsorganisationen Peace Brigade International(PBI). PBI skickar i nuläget ut volontärer till Colombia, Indonesien, Guatemala, Mexiko och så Nepal då.
PBI’s mandat är enkelt: att skydda de mänskliga rättigheterna och att skapa ett utrymme för fred.
I dagsläget bär jag två identiteter, den jag kom hit med i förrgår och den jag kommer att bära under större delen av mina 15 månader här. Först turistens klädnad i form av vandrarkängor och en aldrig avtagande fascination och vördnad över att på vara i världens högsta berg. På sängen bredvid mig min andra identitet, en klädnad av en annan kvalitet. Min Volunteer Field Officer identitet. Några Nepalesiska klädesplagg. En hög dokument , mest utskrifter av nyskrivna politiska analyser av dagsläget i Nepal tillhandahållet av UNMIN.
www.unmin.org.np
Det vill säga United Nation Mission to Nepal, eller Förenta Nationernas mission här i Nepal och material från andra internationella och lokala källor. En språkkurs i Nepali, fakta om våra partners och klienter på plats och kompendiet om historik, struktur och metodik i organisationen jag snart ska representera i fält.
Jag känner hur jag redan nu börjar avidentifieringen av turisten i mig. Och ändå är jag ännu på semester. Fortfarande lite tid att strosa, titta på templen och dricka chai. Köpa avlagda billiga andrahandsböcker som de som redan rest hem lämnat efter sig som ett litet fotspår att de varit här. Ibland undrar jag vem de var, brydde de sig om den politiska situationen i Nepal? Visste de att Nepal 2002 hade fler kidnappningar är Colombia? Hade de en aning om att ingen i dagläget, i början av 2010 blivit dömd för ett människorättsbrott?
Kanske visste de och kanske tillhörde just den personen som ägt min begagnade bok en av de många INGO eller NGO’s som arbetar i regionen. Det är möjligt att just de frågeställningar och tankar som far genom mitt huvud också gått igenom deras, som PBI’s enkla mandat ovan: Att skydda mänskliga rättigheter och att skapa ett utrymme för fred –vad betyder det i praktiken?
Jag misslyckades med att definiera några marxister.
Fast jag trodde ett tag att jag hittat ett par, ett gäng unga killar med käppar i händerna. Liknande de den nepalesiska polisstyrkan ofta bär. Sedan insåg jag att det var cricketkäppar. Ingen motsägelse i sig, marxister spelar också cricket, men politiska sympatier syns inte alltid på utsidan.
Nio år har gått sedan jag var här senast. Då mitt i den väpnade konflikten som officiellt avslutades med fredsfördraget 2006 efter tio år av stridigheter mellan den maoistisk gerillarörelsen och den nepalesiska staten. Idag, tillbaks som blivande volontär för fredsorganisationen Peace Brigade International(PBI). PBI skickar i nuläget ut volontärer till Colombia, Indonesien, Guatemala, Mexiko och så Nepal då.
PBI’s mandat är enkelt: att skydda de mänskliga rättigheterna och att skapa ett utrymme för fred.
I dagsläget bär jag två identiteter, den jag kom hit med i förrgår och den jag kommer att bära under större delen av mina 15 månader här. Först turistens klädnad i form av vandrarkängor och en aldrig avtagande fascination och vördnad över att på vara i världens högsta berg. På sängen bredvid mig min andra identitet, en klädnad av en annan kvalitet. Min Volunteer Field Officer identitet. Några Nepalesiska klädesplagg. En hög dokument , mest utskrifter av nyskrivna politiska analyser av dagsläget i Nepal tillhandahållet av UNMIN.
www.unmin.org.np
Det vill säga United Nation Mission to Nepal, eller Förenta Nationernas mission här i Nepal och material från andra internationella och lokala källor. En språkkurs i Nepali, fakta om våra partners och klienter på plats och kompendiet om historik, struktur och metodik i organisationen jag snart ska representera i fält.
Jag känner hur jag redan nu börjar avidentifieringen av turisten i mig. Och ändå är jag ännu på semester. Fortfarande lite tid att strosa, titta på templen och dricka chai. Köpa avlagda billiga andrahandsböcker som de som redan rest hem lämnat efter sig som ett litet fotspår att de varit här. Ibland undrar jag vem de var, brydde de sig om den politiska situationen i Nepal? Visste de att Nepal 2002 hade fler kidnappningar är Colombia? Hade de en aning om att ingen i dagläget, i början av 2010 blivit dömd för ett människorättsbrott?
Kanske visste de och kanske tillhörde just den personen som ägt min begagnade bok en av de många INGO eller NGO’s som arbetar i regionen. Det är möjligt att just de frågeställningar och tankar som far genom mitt huvud också gått igenom deras, som PBI’s enkla mandat ovan: Att skydda mänskliga rättigheter och att skapa ett utrymme för fred –vad betyder det i praktiken?
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