September-October 2006
|
Combat Law offers you the latest on human rights issues in India. Subscribe to the magazine to access the complete website and receive regular updates. CombatLaw.org is a subscribers-only site; you have to log in to view complete contents. Non-subscribers, or registered users who have not logged in, will be able to see only summaries of articles, and the full contents of two articles per issue, indicated with a 'Full Access ' icon. |
If they betray April, here comes the
Second Revolution
In violation of a solemn undertaking made a few months earlier, the antiquated riffraff who dominate the April Parliament have declined to dissolve the house. Their rationale is as predictable as their duplicity is typical. This anomalous Parliament, whose composition and temper do not reflect the prevailing sentiments on the ground, is the relic of a shabby compromise, following the Jan Andolan of 1990, between ascendant political entrepreneurs who led the larger parties and declining feudal proprietors who were anxious to avoid structural reform that would threaten their class interests
Constituent Assembly or counter-revolution?
After decades of extreme repression, the Nepali people rose in revolt in what is now also known as the ‘February Revolution’, though the uprisings were mostly enacted in turbulent April.
‘Politics in Nepal is like a frozen pond’
When we explained our recent statement about being committed to peaceful means, we included that statement after much deliberation.
It means nothing, this budget
In the neo-liberal dream project being pushed in Nepal, Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat’s fantasy to end all forms of conflict is evidently phoney as long as he and his allies continue to take dictation in the World Bank office and are briefed by the profit-sharks of the globalised network
‘Keep alive the dream of a
New Nepal’
For me the question is how the Maoists will learn the process of bourgeois democracy without being bourgeois. How will they avoid becoming another CPN(UML)?
Manufactured consent
Bela Malik and Samuel Thomas enter the labyrinth of the Nepali and international media as the flames of radical resistance and change spread in the turbulent landscape of a volatile nation
Let a hundred flowers bloom!
From Kathmandu to the Maoist liberated zones, Amit Sengupta on the spirit of the revolution
All the king’s horses
and all the king’s men
In the name of fighting terror, the Royal Nepalese Army has relentlessly unleashed terror on unarmed civilians using rapes, disappearances, mass murders and torture. However, the army has escaped public attention.
Miles to go
before we sleep
The announcement of the dates for the election of the Constituent Assembly, its structure, mandate and electoral representational system, is the immediate and only answer to all the problems that Nepal is facing in today’s transitional phase. And if the SPA betrays yet again, it will pay a heavy price Gopal Siwakoti ‘Chintan’
Editorial
A Nepali textbook for India
The Many Murders of Maina
Maina’s was the case which was raised with the government by every single UN mission, international human rights organisations and the media, but nothing moved
Survivors’ Tales of Torture
Nepal has ratified a number of international human rights treaties prohibiting torture that prevail in the country as national laws under Nepal’s Treaty Act. But, in practice, the State has been practicing and sponsoring routine and systematic use of worst forms of torture and violence in detention camps.
PUNISH the guilty
Though Nepal has ratified many international human rights treaties and constituted inquiry commissions, it remains unclear if the new government will punish politicians and army generals and bring hope to the victims of atrocities
Future tense
The direct involvement of people in drafting the new Constitution of Nepal is possibly the only way forward for lasting and permanent peace
Murdered and disappeared Testimonies
I feel proud to be the daughter of martyrs.
I have no regrets. Maoists are not selfish. They are dedicated to the nation. They will die for the nation
We will not accept Maoists armed. They must come forward as a political party
‘It must be ensured that the Nepali army won't harm democracy, won't hatch conspiracies and won't organise a coup. For this, armed forces must be democratised. Maoist weapons should be kept in a 'locked up' position’
Sound of Silence
The marginalised sections of Nepal want the new republic to eradicate the social evils that has made them suffer exclusion from mainstream society for ages
Mahakali’s sovereignty
The contentious Indo-Nepal Mahakali Treaty which Nepalis consider as blatantly unequal should be reviewed in the spirit of justice and fairplay. A Nepal perspective by Rishi Raj Lumshali
Miles to go for women in Nepal
Despite the long struggle of Nepalese women and activists for the quest of equality, it's a long way to go for the total elimination of discrimination against women
In the racist rat trap
The Gurkhas: The Forgotten Veterans is basically a report of the outcome of an international inquiry commission on discrimination against the British-Gurkhas. The mission, part of GAESO's decade-long campaign and legal battle in the UK for the right to equality in the terms and conditions of service of the British-Gurkha army personnel, conducted inquiries, facilitated and supported by the Kathmandu-based Public Interest Law Firm and the Campaign for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, in Nepal during the month of June 2005.
Skin of the Shadow
D for Dalit. D for defiance. D for dignity. D for deception. D for denial. The term itself has become a deceptive metaphor, visible yet invisible, presence yet absence, realism yet illusion, human yet inhuman, outside humanity, across the logic of desire and death.
Gandhi or Che?
Walking around a busy market area in Delhi along with a friend the other day it was impossible not to be hit in the face by the signs of urban decay all around. Plastic bags, glass bottles, Cola cans, animal waste – you name the filth it was there filling up all possible spaces between the bustle of street vendors with their gaudy wares and roadside eateries with long queues of eager customers.
Other issues:
