Who Hates Whom: Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts, and Various Things Blowing Up A Woefully Incomplete Guide by Harris Bob

Author:Harris, Bob [Harris, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science
ISBN: 9780307408488
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2007-09-25T00:00:00+00:00

NEPAL (WITH BHUTAN ADDED FOR EXTRA ENLIGHTENMENT)

In the Himalayas lie two ancient lands, one Hindu, one Buddhist, both undergoing enormous change.

NEPAL

• Maoist rebellion v. royalty; tentative peace, 2006

• Possible Madhesi insurgency, early 2007

While Nepal is associated with the vast Himalayas, it’s not all backpackers and chai tea. Kathmandu has Detroit’s population, packed eight times more densely and with twice the air pollution.

Until recently, Nepal was ruled by the Shah family (no relation to Iran), who united the country via conquest 250 years ago. However, in the 19th century a rival clan called the Ranas took over, running Nepal through family connections sort of the way Tony Soprano ran New Jersey. The Ranas and Shahs have played Family Feud ever since.

The Ranas saw isolation as a way to retain power, but they also kowtowed to the British rulers of India, so rich Nepalese often got liberal educations at Oxford and Eton. After WWII, India gained independence and built the world’s largest democracy, so by the 1950s, anti-Rana, pro-democracy sentiment grew among the upper class.

India decided that installing the rival Shah family atop a democracy would turn Nepal into a stable bulwark between them and China. Once in charge, however, the new Shah king abolished parliament, seizing power. In 1991, popular pressure led to a constitutional monarchy, but the king’s power was only somewhat reduced. When life for most people didn’t improve, strikes and riots followed. The king responded with violence, so a Maoist insurgency declared their own local governments in rural areas and began a protracted civil war.

By 2001, the Shah heir apparent was Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, age twenty-nine, an Eton grad with a taste for booze who had been nicknamed “Dippy” by his classmates. Unfortunately, Dippy fell madly for a hot twenty-two-year-old named Devyani Rana.

Notice her last name. Romeo and Juliet had nothing on these two.

The Shah family disapproved of the union, so Dippy disapproved of his family. With an M-16 rifle. On June 1, 2001, Dippy went Scarface on nearly the entire royal house, killing nine, before turning a gun on himself. (For her part, Dippy’s ex now lives in India and seems a fine young lady, if not quite worth machine-gunning your family over.) The Maoist insurgency saw this as a chance to redouble their pressure, and the new king, Dippy’s uncle Gyanendra (a family Shemp who wasn’t around when things went postal), was unable to handle the challenge.

Peace talks failed, and as the Maoists took the countryside, Gyanendra cracked down on opposition politicians and the press. Hundreds of journalists were jailed; many were tortured. Nepalese newspapers took to printing blank editorial pages in protest.

Thirteen thousand people died in the civil war, with human rights violations committed by both sides. The violence depressed the much-needed tourist trade, amplifying everyone’s desperation. Finally, in late 2005, an alliance of seven political parties and the Maoist rebellion signed an accord for a new try at democracy. To convince the king to go along, the agreement called for mass protests.

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