by Bhuwan Thapaliya.

These days it seems as though there are two governments running Nepal: the city-based, royal regime, which is yet to win both domestic and international confidence, and the village based Maoists regime, which seem determined to cleanse the royal regime and those they do not like. And sandwiched in between them are the legitimate democratic political parties and the hapless civilians of Nepal.

For one, the humanitarian situation in Nepal has steadily deteriorated in recent years. The barbarity of both the Maoists and the Government security forces, as well as the collapse of socio-economic structures in the villages, is forcing larger numbers of susceptible Nepalese to flee from rural conflict affected areas to larger towns. In the past three years, the conflict has intensified -- both sides have employed increasingly atrocious tactics against civilians suspected of supporting the opposing side.

The most realistic estimate of Nepalese people, who are internally displaced as a result of the armed conflict, is between 100,000 and 200,000, and the number of Nepalese who have been forced to flee to India could be as high as 500,000, according to the Profile of the Displaced in Nepal, compiled by the Norwegian Refugee Council's Global IDP Project. Global estimates indicate that approximately 80 percent of all displaced populations are generally women and children under age 18. And the Nepali organization Community Study and Welfare Centre (CSWC) estimates that the number of internally displaced children in Nepal may be as high as 100,000 to 120,000.

Government recognizes IDP

However, the Nepalese government has ignored the internally displaced population though Nepal is suffering from the internally displaced population syndrome, since the outbreak of armed conflict in 1996. In August 2004, the government officially recognized the Internally Displaced Population (IDP) situation in Nepal and formed a task force, led by the vice-chair of the National Planning Commission to recommend a plan of action for assistance.

However, the plan it seems has remained only in the papers since the information about any targeted assistance programs for this population had remained obscure till date. The Ministry of Finance recently, however made a statement to donors welcoming the assistance of the international community in providing humanitarian assistance to the displaced.  Donors, in turn, are concerned that the direct donor support to the government could be supporting the military budget instead. Moreover, the Government of Nepal’s atrocious treatment of members of the Maoist Victims Association, who protested for recognition as “internal refugees” status in May 2005, raises some legitimate questions about the Government’s commitment to Internally Displaced Population (IDP) protection.  Its ruthless actions make clear that the IDP problem is not a main concern for them.

UN Help Needed

The “Maoist Victims Association”, is only a small percentage of those internal victims displaced by Maoist barbaric violence.  Members of this group were beaten and imprisoned by the security forces. Instead of sheltering them under the wings of the state the government is rubbing salt in their wound.  

The treatment of such people by the government raises concern about how the Government treats IDPs, who have been displaced as a result of actions by the security forces.  The UN Human Rights monitors will have to play an important role in IDP protection or else the matter will worsen at an alarming rate. No exact reliable figures exist on the current number of Nepalese people, who are refugees or internally displaced, and those numbers that do exist are highly tentative and difficult to authenticate.

Ironically, even after more than the nice years of conflict, the UN and international community still tend to approach their activities in Nepal from a development perspective only, resulting in little or no focus on the displaced population.  It is feared that the lifting of one vulnerable group out of the overall population could destabilize the situation further, create pull factors and possibly contribute to a breakdown of the fragile national coping mechanism. “These are real concerns that need to be addressed and discussed more openly between the Nepalese government and the donor/international nongovernmental organization (INGO) community,” they were quoted as saying.

But conveniently for Nepal, now after a long stalemate, the United Nations Country Team, donors and non-governmental organizations are in the initial stages of developing a response to meet the needs of large numbers of conflict impacted Nepalese. “A Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) planning workshop was just held, which should help focus agencies on the necessity of providing a better humanitarian response.  The UN will launch the Nepal CAP in August. Donor governments, the UN and NGOs must quickly change their strategies, which have tended to focus on development activities, to incorporate the new reality in Nepal,” according to the report of Michelle Brown and Kavita Shukla in refugeesinternational.org.

Furthermore, most Nepalese believe that this is a national problem and no international intervention and help would be enough to solve the IDPs syndrome in Nepal. Even so, International humanitarian agencies must reconsider their current activities with a social view and concentrate for the protection of fundamental humanitarian rights here. With the virtually non-functional Nepali government and the non-existence of the state in many areas of Nepal, UN agencies and NGOs need to expand their provision of services on an emergency basis and allow other humanitarian agencies to respond to needs.