Global IssuesNEPAL: Crime Grows Amid Political Instability
Khyati Shrestha, a 17-year-old high school student in Kathmandu, was abducted and brutally murdered last month. 17 days later, her body parts were found in the outskirts of the valley. The accused, Biren Pradhan, later chillingly revealed that she was killed within 24 hours of kidnapping.
Locals near a village in Pokhara wrongly accused some Indian tourists of attempting to kidnap children and beat them up last week. In the Chapagaon, Lalitpur, a 12-hour curfew had to be declared to quell the violence.
Gongabu, a suburb of Kathmandu, was blocked off due to the locals protesting another attempted kidnapping. But the situation got worse when two young high-school students, involved in a gang fight, were mistaken for kidnappers and lynched to death on Sunday.
These instances indicate a steep rise in crime in Kathmandu and the Tarai in the recent months. Human Rights group Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC) reports 38 murders by the police, political party affiliated youth groups or criminal gangs in the last three months.
'When the Maoists quit from the government two months ago, they left a political vacuum,' explains Bidhya Chapagain of INSEC, 'It took a long time to form the cabinet, with no Home Ministry to check on law and order it is no wonder that violent criminal activities increased.'
Many believe that the rise in crime is normal for a country going through a phase of transition. Law and order has been deteriorating for a few years, especially since the constituent assembly elections in April 2008 after which the Maoists assumed power, marking an end to Nepal’s decade-long civil war.
Businessmen, human rights activists, civil society members and journalists have all been threatened and attacked. Security experts opine that crime is inevitable during political transition. However, to tackle crime, its root causes ought to be addressed.
'From experiences of other countries, it is clear that transitions are not easy, but to explain crime without trying to understand what the sources of conflict are, or come up with solutions will only encourage impunity,' says a former superintendent of police who did not wish to be named.
After the ‘people's movement in 1990 and during the Maoist's 'people's war', the credibility of the Nepalese police steadily eroded.
'The institution was seen to be very politicized with parties controlling them,' says Dewan Rai, a journalist. There is little or no faith in the judicial system or the corrupt police force, he says, leading people to take the law in their own hands.
A report titled 'On track for improved security?' released jointly by the Nepali research firm Interdisciplinary Analysts and Saferworld, an international nongovernmental organisation in June made a startling revelation. Only 46 per cent of over 3,000 respondents interviewed for the survey said they will go to the police first if they feel threatened by violence.
Says Subindra Bogati of Saferworld, 'That most people would not report crime to the police was clear right from the beginning of our interviews as more and more of our respondents said they are cautious of the police and they want a force that they can trust.'
The report also says that the number of people who think the country is 'heading in the right direction' dropped by 20 per cent from 2007 and considers Tarai to be the most insecure region in Nepal.
'Almost half the people interviewed in the Tarai said that they fear being a victim of crime and think the government is not making any effort to make the country peaceful or reduce crime,' says the report.
Bogati adds, 'In some parts of the Tarai we found that the police could not work without consulting with political parties.'
Chapagain from INSEC agrees that the situation in the Tarai has worsened since the end of 'people's war' and the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
'There have been instances when the police have asked for protection from human rights organizations instead of the other way around, so one can only imagine the state of lawlessness there.'
But it is not just in the Tarai that people are feeling terrorised. Constant bandas, or strikes, have made life difficult for Nepalis all over the country. It has become normal for locals to shut down highways due to personal disputes or to protest hit-and-run accidents and even price rise. These groups then threaten to smash or burn down vehicles that do not obey the strike, and vandalize shops that stay open.
'What they do during bandas is criminal, too, but people get away with it all the time,' says journalist Rai. According to Nepalbandh.com, a website that keeps track of number of bandas all over Nepal, there were bandas 29 of the 30 days of June in the country.
This spike in violence is leading to rising incidents of vigilantism.
'We saw vigilantism in the Tarai after the peace agreement was signed,' says Chapagain, 'but the state hasn't done much to deal with law and order, which has made people all over Nepal so angry that now they don't think twice before taking the law into their own hands.'
© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service