Landmine Monitor Field Research in Nepal: March 2006

Landmine Monitor writer and editor Sebastian Kasack recently returned from Nepal, where his field research focused on mine risk education and victim assistance. Here is his report from the field.

"King? No good. Maoists? No good. Parties? No good."

The wisdom of a taxi driver describes the current political mess in Nepal quite accurately, it seems.

I arrived at an interesting moment as the Maoists had declared a blockade of all major roads. Luckily the blockade was lifted four days after my arrival following an agreement between Maoists and a platform of political parties opposing the King's autocratic rule since February last year.

This allowed Purna, Head of the Ban Landmines Campaign Nepal (NCBL) and me to visit not only Pokhara by plane as planned but also Tansen in Palpa District, 5 local bus-hours south of Pokhara. Tansen was scene of a recent [Jan 31/Feb1] massive attack by approx. at least 4,000 others say 7,500 Maoists leaving various government buildings in ruins, personnel abducted, some soldiers/police killed and assassinated, 129 prisoners freed, and a town terrorized - but amazingly no civilians injured or killed, except for the Chief District Officer's cook. [This is just a blog, HRW went there recently and its report is public by now.] Following the night-long fighting Maoists left and the Army retaliated with helicopter raids called aerial 'bombardments' - manipulated 81mm-mortars dropped from helicopters, the so called 'tora bora'-bombs.

It was impressive to hear the accounts from members of the Nepal Red Cross Society and the Federation of Nepalese Journalists and to see the damage first hand. Unexploded ordnance had been cleared away, but the mess after the fighting must have been shocking [see photos taken from a website. On the bottom picture you see the infamous 'socket bombs' - improvised hand grenades made from plumbing sockets filled with explosives. Up to 50 % do not explode.] It took the Army days to clean the various sites of fighting. No civilian injuries from touching, moving, or tampering with unexploded IEDs occurred. This may partly been due to Mine Risk Education initiatives undertaken by NRCS which then were quickly copied by other agencies, journalists etc. A Red Cross activist went straight to one of the FM stations to submit warning messages. Another good example I heard: children stopped classmates from hammering with a stone on a pipe bomb (why hammer on it in the first place? To make it explode?!).

This is just an impression from one day of the trip. The others were not THAT exciting but rather interesting as well.

For example receiving the full salute ceremony when visiting two high generals of the Royal Nepalese Army Headquarters in Kathmandu (in a 1974 model Toyota private taxi…). The Major General stated the Royal Nepalese Army lays improvised explosive devices assembled in Nepal and did lay antipersonnel mines "in the beginning of the conflict" around permanent installations .

For information on the work-related portions of this trip you will have to wait and read the final Nepal country report in this year's Landmine Monitor - to be released on 13 September 2006.